Disrupted
by Darkness Revolution
Summary: To whomever may be watching this, this is my story. Yeah, me. Pepper Houston, the Doctor's Lost Companion. It's too hard to explain it all right here right now, because the Doctor will be back any second, but listen: almost all the Doctor knows is wrong. I was sucked into a Rift, which erased me from history. My story needs to be told. Just don't blink; you might miss something.
1. Intro

Hey, guys. So I recently got into Doctor Who, and I watched all six seasons (the six that were on Netflix) in two weeks. Don't hate me, because I've started yet another story and I haven't finished a single one. Trust me on this, I have the entire thing planned out, and it's a good one. It will take me a while to update, as it is supposed to be a long fic, and the chapters are at least ten pages long each.

Hope you all like~

All rights to Doctor Who goes to its lovely creators in BBC, and all the rights to my original charater(s) go to me. This story is fiction and fiction alone, AND IS FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE READERS, NOT FOR PROFIT.

(Read: I AM _NOT_ A PROFESSIONAL WRITER, THIS SHIT IS JUST FOR FUN.)

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Introduction- The Lost Companion

_A video screen flickers to life, switching from static to the view of a room shaped like a dome, with odd little hexagon lights in the walls, and branch-like supports in the background. A young woman, no older than 18 or 19, sits down in front of the video camera. She has brown hair that could match the shade of a chestnut, with her bangs died royal blue, a shade just darker than her clear blue eyes. Her complexion is clear of blemishes, but she has a faint splash of freckles on her nose and cheeks. There is a tattoo of an intricate star and cross design on her upper right arm, shown off by the beaten-up white tank top she is wearing._

"_Is it working…?" She mutters, looking around as if to make sure no one is watching. She then clears her throat and speaks directly to the camera:_

"_Alright, to whomever may be watching this, a past or future me, a past or future Doctor, a companion, or just someone who happened to walk into an unlocked TARDIS, this is my story. You've seen all the other Doctors and their companions, from Sarah Jane to Rose, Martha, Donna, and Amy and Rory, but my story is the one that remains untold. My name is Pepper Houston. Write that down before you do anything else, because you might look away and not remember I was even here. It's too hard to explain it all right here right now, because the Doctor will be back any second, but listen: almost all the Doctor knows is wrong. I was sucked into a Rift—well… if I told you what I meant by a "Rift", you wouldn't believe me, so I'll just save that for later. Since this "incident" with a "Rift", everything I've ever done with the Doctor never existed, and so many lives lost have been forgotten as well. The Doctor has learned so much more when I was with him, about himself and about what happens at the far reaches of the universe, and he can't lose it now. Seeing me won't help, it would only make him ask me who I am, and hurt me because he wouldn't remember._

"_Every single thing the Doctor thinks happened these past two years have been a lie—" The young woman continues, "And that means the story you guys know is also not completely true—sorry, guys, but River didn't really love the Doctor as much as she thought she did. I'm here to set the record straight and give you the real story. Like I said; I can't tell the entire thing right now. However, I can give you a time and date where it will be safe for you to see. We're in a space and time machine, it's not that hard. My story hasn't ended quite yet, and I want to be sure you get a good ending."_

_The young woman presses a couple buttons on the console offscreen, looking away for a moment, then, when she looks back at the camera, she mutters, "10:01 AM, June fourteenth, 2097, at address 10378, Luthrow Drive, New Orleans, Louisiana. Good luck! Oh, and if you see the Doctor… Just tell him, 'The Lost Companion sends her love'. He'll know what you meant as soon as he meets me again._

"_One more thing," Pepper Houston leans close to the camera, looking very serious. Then, she smiles, winking, "don't blink. You might miss something."_

_The screen goes blank._


	2. Prologue: Mrs Smith

**I know it's annoying- "An intro AND a prologue?! Just get to the good stuff already!" Yeah, yeah, bitch all you want. I'm uploading one chapter a month, and I want to stay one chapter ahead. I still have school; haven't graduated yet. THIS WILL MAKE SENSE LATER... LIKE, AT THE END. *SHOT FOR BEING A TROLL***

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All rights to Doctor Who goes to its lovely creators in BBC, and all the rights to my original charater(s) go to me. This story is fiction and fiction alone, AND IS FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE READERS, NOT FOR PROFIT.

(Read: I AM _NOT_ A PROFESSIONAL WRITER, THIS SHIT IS JUST FOR FUN.)

* * *

Let's play a game. Close your eyes, and imagine a psychiatrist's office. If you don't know what a psychiatrist's office looks like, imagine a big room with matching leather furniture. The floor is wood, and there is a big shag carpet in the middle of the room. There is a coffee table on the carpet, and there is an armchair on one side and a couch on the other, with mismatched pillows. In one corner of the room, there is a little Barbie play set and a hot wheels track for the psychiatrist's younger patients.

Currently, the psychiatrist is seeing one of her oldest patients. Her skin is wrinkly and coppery, her hair is straight and white, with gray patches here and there. It's brittle in the front from her using hair coloring too many times, and the back is kept in a very long, slim braid over her shoulder, which reaches down to her waist. While she is old and not as strong as she used to be, she has kept a decent amount of her strength for a one-hundred-and-two-year-old woman. She is not just skin and bone.

"Hello, Mrs. Smith." The young psychiatrist smiles at her patient, adjusting the glasses at the end of her nose, "How are you today?"

The old woman smiles and runs her shaky hands over her cold, bony and bare fingers, "I'm fine, thank you," She says in her raspy voice, "My niece recommended I come here… and talk to you about my stories."

The psychiatrist keeps her smile and takes out a yellow legal pad and a pen, preparing to write down what Mrs. Smith was about to say. The old woman licks her dry lips and leans back against the couch, trying to gather her thoughts.

"Now, Dr. Umbrige," Mrs. Smith says to the psychiatrist, her voice very grave and serious, "You may write down the story I'm about to tell you, but you can't tell anyone about my stories. I must warn you, that everything I am about to say is absolutely and utterly true."

Dr. Umbrige blinks in surprise, then she puts on an impressed smile and nods at Mrs. Smith. "Alright then, Mrs. Smith, tell me about your stories."

Mrs. Smith smiles, memories swimming around in her deep blue eyes, and folds her hands in her lap. "Now, Dr. Umbridge, before I start, I must ask… How old are you?"

"I am thirty-eight, Mrs. Smith."

"Ah… So she was about twenty years younger than you. That was… eighty-four years ago."

"Eighty-four, that's right Mrs. Smith. Who are you talking about?"

"My adopted sister, Pepper Houston. She told me about her adventures; she was my idol. That was during the point in my life when I cut my hair like hers—like I have it now, shorter in the front and longer in the back. She was also fond of dying her bangs different colors. This was before we could get our genes altered cosmetically, you see. She actually had blue eyes when she was born, and she had to use chemicals to dye her hair."

The psychiatrist seems surprised at this comment, "Really! That was a long time ago."

Mrs. Smith chuckled and looked down at her coppery hands, "Yes, practically the dark ages… Now, I have one more question, Dr. Umbrige."

"What is that, Mrs. Smith?"

Mrs. Smith smiles to herself.

"Have you ever shot an arrow?"


	3. Chapter 1, Wooden Bows and Metal Men

Happy October, y'all! Here is the much-anticipated chapter one of DISRUPTED!

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, this is just for fun.

*Cecelia Monet is a random name I made up since Pepper doesn't exist in the show.

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**~INSERT THEME MUSIC HERE~**

**Chapter 1: Wooden Bows and Metal Men**

**DAVID TENNANT**

**CECELIA MONET***

**DOCTOR WHO**

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Have you ever shot an arrow?

I'm serious. Have you legitimately attached an arrow to a bowstring, pulled the string back, aimed at a target—be it a circular one or one shaped like your next door neighbor (Pepper actually didn't mean to hit him; we were ten.)—and loosed the arrow like you were Katniss Everdeen?

If you have, you should know how it feels. If you haven't, you're missing out. There's a certain powerful feeling that comes with pulling that bowstring back and holding it there. It's strangely calming, in those two seconds before you let it go, as you take in one last breath, let it out, adrenaline racing through your veins…and suddenly, you relax the fingers holding the bowstring, and _whish! Thunk!_ You find your arrow buried three inches deep in the target. (thank _God_ the arrow Pepper accidentally hit our neighbor with only grazed his cheek!)

Like I said, it's a powerful feeling.

As a plus, there are a lot of people that don't know much about archery, except when they see people in the movies use arrows. Please. Most of the country we live in doesn't know that there _are_, in fact, actual competitions for archery. Because they aren't televised, no one ever knows that. This entire country is obsessed with the big sports: hockey, soccer, baseball, golf, basketball, and, of course, football. Pepper hated hearing people say that it takes skills to play football. "Excuse me," she would always say, "but I think using steroids to look buff and then bashing each other's heads in for a ball that doesn't even look like a ball does _not_ take more skill than a ram supplies when he headbutts other rams to impress the lady sheep." Which pretty much described high school football. Pepper and I learned to shoot bows together. And I'm not talking about the lazy American compound bows, a _real,_ classic longbow, one that humanity has been using purposefully for thousands of years.

Pepper was always wanting to run away from America and go live in Canada. I wasn't as dedicated to the sport as she was, and I was quite content with living in Louisiana.

Well, now! You're probably wondering who I am and why I'm blabbering on about archery, right, Dr. Umbrige? Well, who I am as of this moment in which we are speaking isn't important. Back then, 84 years in the past, my name was Charlotte Houston, my adopted sister's name was Pepper Houston. My family and her very close friends called her Pepsi as a nickname, mostly because she loved Pepsi. (It used to be a soft drink, Dr. Umbrige.)

It was in her high school years that she called herself the "Mistress of the Bow". The word 'bow' may be taken two ways: a bow used in archery, as she was the Louisiana State Archery Champion going on four years as of 84 years ago (the year was 2012, I believe), and a bow used in playing the violin, which she had been playing since she was five. Also, when written, "b-o-w" can also refer to the method of bowing, as you would do in Martial Arts before facing your opponent. Yes, she was a black belt in Martial Arts as well, Dr. Umbrige.

What else does this title tell you about Pepper, Dr. Umbrige? Nothing. Which is what she would be without those three things. She couldn't cook for the life of her, and she was a very negative and sarcastic girl, didn't have that many close friends. The most friends Pepsi ever had at one time was around thirteen or so, however, under the surface, she was the kindest person ever. She took care of her foster brothers and sisters—especially me—as if we were her own children. She didn't like politics, and didn't have much time for social networking websites, nor did she watch that much TV. Ah, she loved her music, however, and went to all sorts of concerts; classical, rock, pop, punk, country, all that. The only kind of music she refused to listen to was rap. It wasn't music to her ears.

Now, without further ado, Dr. Umbrige, the story, from where my sister Pepsi's adventures with a mysterious man called the Doctor, began.

There was really nothing special about a Parish Archery Competition. Sure, there's a procession of levels before you go to the national level of competitions, but there was really no challenge for Pepper until she got to State. First, there were preliminaries, which are between the different places that offer archery lessons and the self-taught registrated archers, then there's city level, parish, regionals, then state and nationals. In that year, she had yet to win nationals, but she had been close second for four years now. The only way she would be able to beat the national champ would be if she could learn how to split an arrow. She had been practicing that very stunt for eighteen months. Her instructor, Tony, told her to use the prelims, city, parish, and regionals to practice, since there was no one that had a chance of beating her until State.

In any case, Pepper was at the Parish level of competitions. Usually, there aren't more than twenty competitors that make it to Parish. Her archery school was hosting the event, and she got to look at all the winners of the city level before the other archers got there. She counted twenty.

When the other competitors got there, twenty-one showed up.

The group from the town we were from, New Orleans, had seven people.

According to Pepper, there should have only been six.

Pepper had no business with the extra archer standing next to her, nor did she have any business with how well he shot. Still, she couldn't help but wonder who he was. He was dressed in a blue pinstriped suit in June in Louisiana. The red converse hi-tops he had on didn't match his suit at all. His hair, Pepper said, reminded her of Edward from Twilight. (That was a popular movie long before your time, Dr. Umbrige): brown and spiked up with gel. His eyes were the biggest brown eyes, I've seen them myself, once. Pepper told me, after her adventures were over, that he looked so much like a monkey that if she had seen him before, she would have remembered him. And she had to have seen him before if he was in her division for the competition.

She would find out later, of course, who he was, as well as what happened to the man observing and judging the competitions, Chairman Baker.

He went into the building where the archers practiced on ranges, wearing khakis and a Saints t-shirt, as well as a pair of NIKE sneakers. When he came back, he was wearing khakis, a Saints t-shirt, a pair of NIKE sneakers, and strange-looking bluetooth-like devices in both ears. His movements were very robotic, and Pepper noticed he was either watching her or the Monkey Man Whom Wasn't Supposed to Be There But Was.

However, Pepper couldn't let these matters deter her. She had to focus. She had attempted to split arrows before, and had come very close, but hadn't quite accomplished it yet. This was her chance.

At 1:02 PM, she shot her first arrow. Her arms were steady, her breaths were deep, and her arrows were ready and waiting. She drew the bowstring back to her cheek, anchoring it, and took that last breath. She relaxed her fingers and loosed the arrow, and within that same second, the arrow was buried just within the bull's eye of the target. She grinned and waited for the second bell to signal her to shoot her next arrow. She nocked it, and as soon as that bell dinged, she loosed it, and it landed dead center. A smirk crept onto her face, and she nocked the last arrow. Time seemed to slow down as she drew the string back and anchored it.

_Aim._

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

_Relax._

Pepper seemed to be in a dream state, as if time itself had turned into Jell-O. Her eyes and ears were both confused, as they heard the cracking of plastic and saw the arrow split completely in half.

She'd done it.

Eighteen months of practicing and she'd finally split an arrow.

She wasn't aware that she was awake. Her friends and family that had come to see her, including myself, ran up to congratulate her. The first movement she made was to put her bow over her shoulder. The next, was to look past us, the throng of her 4 brothers and 6 sisters (that's including me and a two-year old Violet, but not baby Ollie, who wasn't six months yet), at the Monkey Man Whom Shouldn't Have Been There but Was.

He wasn't smiling.

He wasn't looking at Pepper, either; he was looking at the Chairman, and for good reason, too.

Chairman Baker was standing very still and straight. He was staring at Pepper, and his bluetooth things (would they be blueteeth?) were buzzing with electricity, His normally brown eyes had become a translucent blue. If Pepper had been closer, she would have seen that they were buzzing with little blue electric sparks too, but she couldn't tell for sure.

This lasted all of two seconds, then the Monkey Man Who Shouldn't Have Been There But Was blended in with the crowd, patting Pepsi's back and congratulating her.

"Molto Bene! Brilliant job!" He grinned, then leaned in to whisper in her ear, as she would tell me later, "Be careful of the Chairman." Then, he slipped past me and was swallowed by the crowd, disappearing.

Pepper quickly shrugged him off as the Chairman went over to her. He still wasn't smiling, and didn't congratulate her like he damn well should have.

"You will follow me for your reward," He said mechanically, "Leave your weapon." He then marched off into the archery building, stiff as… metal.

Suspicious as Pepsi was of him—as we all were of him—she was stupid enough to leave her bow safe in the hands of our foster mama, and follow the Chairman. She wouldn't be without a weapon, though; the building was her practice range for indoor days, so it was bound to at least have a dozen different bows of her choosing she could use to defend herself if needed.

In the middle of one of the ranges, the Chairman stood, behind a trophy on a table, next to a stack of money. Pepper's eyes widened. The stack of money was a _lot_ more than what she usually got at the Parish level.

"Congratulations," The Chairman said in monotone, "You may collect your prize." He lifted an arm, gesturing stiffly to the table. Pepper stepped closer to the Chairman and the table, and suddenly, that mysterious man's British-accented voice rang through her ears.

"_Be careful of the Chairman."_

Pepper's eyebrows furrowed. She was a trained black-belt Martial Artist and Louisiana State Archery Champion of Four Years in a room full of the weapons of her trade. What threat could that Chairman be? He was a middle-aged, short and stocky man with blue-teeth in his ears; she highly doubted he could fight her.

His monotone voice snapped her out of her musings, "You will accept these new communication devices, as a gift from a new sponsor." He held out his hand, and in it were a pair of the same earpieces he had in. Pepper was very sure she wasn't Sherlock Holmes, but if those were the same ear buds he had on, she wanted nothing to do with them.

"No, thanks." She said, backing away from him, "I don't take unwrapped gifts…" Especially from strangers; our foster Mama taught us that a long time ago. Pepper knew better than to take those things.

"You will take them," Chairman Baker repeated, holding them out to her insistently, "Or you will be deleted."

Suddenly, she heard the sound of metal clomping down on the concrete floor of the range. She turned around to see two freaky robot-looking creatures coming towards her. Her blue eyes went wide.

So _that's_ what the Monkey Man meant.

Be careful of the Chairman…and his freaky robot friends.

But my sister stood tall as the robot things came up to her and stopped. There was a chilling stillness in the air. No one moved. Pepper's heart raced, and blood pounded in her ears, bringing that familiar fight-or-flight response to her head.

Fight? There were bows, and there were arrows. But these guys were metal.

Flight? They were heavy, and Pepper wasn't. But they might have guns or lasers.

There was a point in that silence that she actually believed that she was going to be shot by something, be it a laser or a bullet. She thought for a split second that she was going to die. Then, one of the robots spoke.

"She is not compatible."

_Uh-oh_, Pepper thought, _that can't be good_.

"Delete her." The other one said.

Fight or flight?

…how about both?

Pepper took off running for the racks of bows and quivers. She grabbed a recurve bow that was just her size, but when she nocked up an arrow, it was the blunt kind that the archers used for practice. Right, the arrows actually used for hunting and fighting purposes—the sharp ones—were in the back room. Pepper emptied out the quiver, and one of the arrows fell in the path of a laser and was incinerated.

Oh. They _did_ have lasers.

Pepper dodged the red beams of light as she ran like hell for the back room, and dove for the bucket of sharpened arrows. She stuffed as many as she could in the quiver, and as she stood up, she hit her head on someone's chin.

"OW!" They both shouted.

Pepper clutched her head and hissed a couple curses under her breath, and was about to chew out the other guy for being in her way, when he cut her off.

"Oh, terribly sorry about that; are you alright?" That British accent was unmistakable, and Pepsi looked up to confirm; it was the Monkey Man Who Shouldn't Have Been There But Was.

"Oh my God, you're that guy!" She shouted, standing up, "You're the extra guy who wasn't on the roster!"

"Yep, that's me!" He grinned, shaking her hand, " 'allo, I'm the Doctor! What's your name?"

"Pepper… Pepper Houston…" She said, very confused.

"Brilliant! A pleasure to meet you, Pepper Houston."

Shaking herself out of her confused state, Pepper pulled out an arrow, "Alright, you're the one who warned me about the Chairman, how did you know he was going to do… whatever he was trying to do?!" She asked, not even bothering to wonder why he hadn't given her his real name.

"The Chairman isn't himself anymore." The Doctor went off on a reel, talking at ninety miles an hour. "He's been Cyber…-ized. Cyberized, that isn't a word, is it? But basically, he's been turned Cyber- well, hypnotized- well, really, his brain is being controlled by an external force through those ear-drives… Basically, he's been turned into a Cyberman without the metal. An Organic Cyberman."

This was a lot for Pepper to absorb in a couple of seconds, but she did, responding after a short pause, "Cybermen? Is that what those robot people are called?"

"Yes." The Doctor replied.

While they were talking, the Cybermen had found them. She could hear their heavy steps and their mechanical voices monotoning, "Delete. Delete. Delete."

"What do we do?!" Pepper asked, gripping her bow.

"Basically… run!" He said, taking her free hand and starting to drag her towards the back door.

"Wait!" She stopped, taking her hand back, "There are people out there!"

"Yes?! And there are Cybermen in here!"

Pepper grinned, "And that's where they'll stay." She ran into her instructor, Tony's office, the Doctor following.

"My trainer, Tony, he was working on something, something he thought would never be useful, but with the advance of technology, he thought it was only fitting…" She explained as she ran to the closet and pulled out a quiver of silver arrows with black arrowheads and little metal rings around a thinner part of the shaft, "Arrows that transmit a powerful trans-magnetic field. These babies can blast a hole through any thickness or density of metal, given the metal is undiluted." She took two arrows, putting one in her mouth and nocking the other. Then, she ran back out to face the Cybermen.

"No, wait! Don't-!"

But Pepper was too quick for the Doctor to warn her. She drew the string back, and reached those last two seconds.

_Aim for the head._

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

_Relax the fingers._

_Zip!_ The arrow was off! It blasted one Cyberman's head off, the other sent staggering to the side. There was some goop that leaked out of the broken helmet before the Cyberman collapsed hard with the crashing of metal.

Pepper made a face, taking the other arrow out of her mouth. "Ew, what _is_ that gunk?"

"I tried to tell you," The Doctor said, "The Cybermen are robots that used to be human. They have human insides, like a human brain and heart, but they have no emotions."

Pepper grimaced at the brain goo oozing out of the fallen robot. "That's sick… Closest I've ever been to killing an actual person…" She nocked the other arrow as the other robot got back up.

"That's why we've got to run!"

"Hell no!" Pepper retorted, drawing the string back, "I won't let it get outside!"

"You can't! It would be like killing a human!"

"I can and I will!" She said, putting her bow down to glare up at him, "You may not know nor care about those people out there, but those are my family and friends! Now, we can either save one former human whom probably can't be changed back, or save a lot of humans who still have lives to live and families to take care of. Which is it gonna be?"

They stared at each other, the Doctor and the Archer, then a painful look of defeat came across the Doctor's face was all the permission Pepper needed. She re-armed her bow and aimed at the robot, then sent her arrow blasting a hole in the Cyberman's chest. When she turned back around, the Doctor was headed for the back door. She followed him.

"Hey, are you mad at me?"

"No."

"You seem frustrated."

"I'm fine."

"Who are you?"

"I told you, I'm the Doctor."

"No name?"

"Nope, just the Doctor."

"So how come you're frustrated but don't want to admit it, Doctor?"

He rounded on her, and she skidded to a stop inches from his face. "Because I do not condone the unnecessary killing of living creatures. You killed those Cybermen in cold blood and without a second thought!"

"It was in self-defense, and in the defense of at least fifty other people!"

"I could have hacked their command signal back to their ship, where I could have sent them all away without destroying anything!"

"Not before they made off with a bunch of people I know, probably me and you too!"

After that remark, they were both silent, brown eyes locked on blue. Pepper later described his eyes as strange. At the time, she only thought him to be in his early twenties, but his eyes looked ancient. Not the fact that he had wrinkles, but his eyes looked older than the earth itself. They had seen so much war and destruction and pain and suffering that it must have been hard for him to tell the difference between right and wrong anymore. That look in his eyes struck a chord for Pepper; she never could resist the sad look of someone who needed a friend.

Suddenly, that look evaporated.

"You have an American accent; slightly southern. Where are we?"

Pepper looked at him like he'd just grown a second head. "New Orleans, Louisiana…"

"Brilliant." He smiled and turned to go.

To this day, Pepper still doesn't know what made her follow him. There was just some feeling in her gut that made her take that first step after him. And if she had the chance to go back and change it, I don't think she would even change the clothes on her back on that day.

She needed to go back to her parents. She needed to collect her prize money. After taking that first step, she turned and ran back towards the range building.

"Oi! Where are you going?!" The Doctor followed her as she headed for a side entrance.

"To get my things; don't know when you'll need extra cash or magnetic arrows." He was about to say something, but she held up a finger, pulling out her phone to dial our Mama, telling her she was going out to the bayous with her friend and not to wait up for her. After hanging up, she grabbed her money, and on the way out, grabbed the rest of the magnetized arrows Tony had made. Then, the two of them started walking and talking. Now that I remember, Pepper was always just as good as the Doctor as talking fast and listening well.

"So, the Cybermen want me for some reason," Pepper said, braiding the longer portions of her hair, "But why would they try to kill me if they want me?"

"What did they say to you?"

"That I'm 'not compatible', and that I would be deleted if I didn't put in the same set of ear buds the Chairman was wearing."

"Well, they were pretty much saying that you can't be Cyberized—see, it's not a word and it's already catching on—because your inner system literally isn't compatible with their technology. I'm not compatible with their technology because I'm not human. Maybe that's why you're not compatible, but that's impossible, I would know if you were a Time Lord, and there's no other species—well, except… well, no… You wouldn't happen to be in possession of a fobwatch, would you?"

Pepper shook her head, "Don't own any fobby watch…"

The Doctor went on to explain all he knew about the Cybermen, starting with his adventures in a parallel world and where the Cybermen came from, then a story about a battle, he called it the Battle of Canary Wharf, involving something called a void and a girl named Rose Tyler who would have given her life to protect him. The story of the Cybermen ended with the last time the Doctor saw them, which was in Victorian Era England with memory stamps and a woman who became the Cyber King and a man who thought he was the Doctor.

Their conversation about the metal men—with a side-story about Rose (wasn't kidding about the pain and suffering; the Doctor really liked this girl)—ended at a blue box, about ten or eleven feet tall, which looked a lot like a phone booth.

"Pepper Houston, this is the TARDIS." The Doctor grinned proudly and patted the wooden box.

Pepper stared at it in disbelief. "…It's a phonebooth."

"It's a _TARDIS_," the Doctor corrected, "T-A-R-D-I-S: Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

"…but it's a _phone booth_."

The Doctor chuckled and opened the door with a snap of his fingers, and she saw inside.

Two words came to mind.

"Holy", and "Crap".

There was no way! The blue box ten or eleven feet tall that looked like a phone booth was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Pepper's eyes nearly popped out of her head, and she ran in multiple circles around the TARDIS. There was no way in heaven or hell that the little blue box could even fit the two of them comfortably, much less fit a whole other room.

When Pepper looked at the Doctor again, he was wearing a grin that pretty much read "you must be new here".

"Don't look at me like that! Who are you?!"

"I told you before, I'm the Doctor."

She rolled her eyes, "But Doctor _who?_"

He laughed, keeping that same grin on his face. "Exactly." Before she could ask what he meant, he disappeared into the TARDIS, calling, "Allons-y!" Back over his shoulder at her. Now, Pepper hung out with enough Cajuns to know what that meant. She jumped into the phone booth that was too big to fit inside itself and took a look around the interior. It was shaped much like a dome, with little lights dotted all along the walls. There were odd-looking supports shaped like tree branches, over one of which the Doctor threw his tan trench coat, a garment he hadn't been wearing during the competition. In the middle of the room was a large console that didn't look like any technology Pepper had ever seen, surrounded by railing and grating for a walkway.

"Here she is!" The Doctor gestured to the control room proudly, as if he constructed it himself (which Pepper and I didn't doubt he did).

"The TARDIS?" She asked dumbly, looking around.

"Yes! You're catching on, good for you." He flipped a couple switches and pushed some buttons, then looked at a computer screen. Pepper took another look around and noticed hallways leading off to who knows where.

"And there are other rooms besides this one?" She asked, trying to catch a glimpse at what was down those hallways.

"Yes, hundreds…" the Doctor said absent-mindedly.

"And you're an alien?" No human technology could have done that.

"Yes; I'm a Time Lord."

"Are there others like you?"

"No, they're all gone."

"But there are other alien species out there? Other planets?"

"Yes."

"Have you been to all of them?"

"Yes."

"Even the—?"

"Yes."

"What about the—?"

"Yes."

"…will you marry me?"

The Doctor stopped what he was doing and looked at Pepper as if she was crazy. "_Wot?_" She laughed and held up her hands in defense.

"Just seeing if you were paying attention…" She giggled. He smiled and rolled his eyes, then the computer made a beeping noise, and he turned his attention back to the screen.

"Ah, there it is! Molto bene!" He flipped more switches and pushed more buttons.

"There what is?" She asked, glancing at the screen.

"The signal from the Chairman's earpieces. I can trace it back to where it came from and we can use that trail to find the Cybermen! Ha-ha!"

"You're having way too much fun with this!" Pepper yelped, "You want to go toward the people that tried to kill us?!"

"Exactly! Allons-y, Pepper Houston!" He pulled one big lever, and the whole TARDIS shook, making a strange sound as it did. They both toppled over, and Pepper felt as if something was pushing her to the floor… that couldn't be _gravity_, could it? Pepper couldn't believe it; they were actually _moving_. Moving through time and space and who knows what else. She clung to the railing as they moved faster and faster and shook and shook, and then… they stopped.

"There!" The Doctor shouted, grinning and throwing the lever back up. "We should be directly next to the Cyberman ship!"

"Oh hell naw," Pepper shouted, clinging to the bar, "I ain't going out there!" The Doctor ran giddily past her and opened the doors to the TARDIS, revealing a beautiful view of… you'll never guess what she saw.

"No way…" She mumbled, moving slowly down the ramp to stand next to the Doctor.

"Believe me now?" He grinned at her. She couldn't answer; her tongue was immobile, she claimed.

"Pepper Houston, I give you… the Earth."

It seemed impossible. They were looking at the Earth at a point beyond its atmosphere.

"Ah, and there's the Cyber ship!" The Doctor pointed to a giant metal ship that was parked just above what had to have been Louisiana.

"…wait, what am I breathing? I should be dead." Pepper looked at him, still shocked, but he was still looking out.

"The TARDIS has a small shell of air around it." he went back into the TARDIS, and, as she followed him, the doors closed behind her. It started making that odd noise it made when it took off, and Pepper knew to take hold of that same bar she had been clinging to before.

"Aha!" The Doctor said once they'd stopped again, "The Cyber ship!"

"You sir," Pepper said, getting shakily up from her place on the floor next to the console, "Are absolutely and utterly crazy."

"Very well then!" The Doctor laughed, running past her to grab his coat and once again shouting, "Allons-y!" Pepper groaned and hurried after him, grabbing her bow and the quiver of magnetized arrows.

The duo snuck onto the ship, having landed in some sort of supply closet. This particular part of the ship happened to be deserted, as a closer inspection of the three adjacent rooms closest to them revealed. The last room they checked seemed to be an abandoned or malfunctioned control room. No Cybermen, no humans, no other alien species, as far as the Doctor knew, but there _was_ a large computer.

"Brilliant! We can access information here," the Doctor grinned, "if only I could hack into the system…" He dug through his coat pockets, obviously looking for something, while Pepper looked at the screen.

"It just needs a password…" She muttered, starting to type. As the Doctor pulled out a weird little flashlight-looking thing, the computer unlocked itself. He looked at her, as if she'd just stolen his thunder.

"What did you do?" He asked abashedly.

"I hacked the computer," Pepper grinned, "The password was 'Cybermen'."

The Doctor gaped at her, probably wondering why he hadn't thought of that. However, he wouldn't be outshone. He put on a pair of plastic black glasses and took to the keyboard, typing away.

"This computer hasn't been recently updated," He said, his eyebrows furrowing, "The last entry was… about three weeks ago…"

"What's it say?" Pepper asked, trying to read over his shoulder.

"Uh…" He read it, then his eyebrows shot up, "_No_…"

"What?! What's wrong?!"

"These are the last of the Cybermen… They're scavengers, looking for fighters to use as software for the rest of their army…"

"They're building an army?"

"Yes, but something's wrong… They're not using humans as their hosts anymore; they've failed too much. Too much has gone wrong with the human prototype. They're going to program-… No… no, no, no, NO!"

"What now?!"

"You. That's why they want you! That's why they were at that archery competition; to get the best archer on their team!"

"You mean they were going to turn me into a _computer program?!_" Pepper shrieked. Too loud.

"Shh!" The Doctor covered her mouth and they both held still as the sounds of metal clomping on metal in the distance became louder and louder.

Pepper moved his hand, "…they're coming closer—"

"Run!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and the two of them ran out of the room and through the corridors, passing other Cybermen shouting, "Delete! Delete! Delete!" They ran and ran until they ended up cornered, in the very heart of the ship, next to the controls. There were Cybermen on all sides of them, and there was no where else to run.

Another chilling silence fell, with the Doctor and Pepper standing back to back, facing the Cybermen. Pepper had her bow in her hand, ready to grab an arrow as fast as possible. The Doctor had that little stick in hand—which Pepper would learn later was his Sonic Screwdriver—and stared down the Cybermen.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Pepper hissed.

"They're waiting for a command from their leader." The Doctor whispered back.

"Who's their leader?!"

"Not sure. Changes every time I see them."

The Cybermen remained quiet, then one of them stepped forward to speak. "You will drop your weapons."

Pepper hesitated, licking her lips and looking at the other Cybermen. "…Yeah, and what happens if I don't?"

"You will be deleted."

"And if I do?"

"You will be downloaded."

As if she didn't have a choice, the two Cybermen nearest her grabbed her by her elbows, forcing her to drop her bow. What happened next was sort of a blur for Pepper. The Doctor leapt at them, but the Cybermen behind him held him back as he yelled at them, "Let her go, you said she's not compatible! You don't need her! Let her go!"

"She may not become a Cyberman, but her fighting skills are crucial to the Cyberman Army." The Cyber-spokesperson said.

"There's another question, why do you want an army? Better yet, who wants an army? Who's leading you lot now?"

"It is not commanded, it is written."

"Written? Wot's written where?

"It is written."

The Doctor was quiet, staring down the Cyberman. Then he looked at Pepper, "Why don't you ask them?"

"If they won't answer you, why would they answer me?! I'm nobody! Pepper Houston, foster child, one of eleven children, I live in New Orleans in an old Plantation, can't remember my parents, only have a couple friends, and without my fighting skills and music, I've got nothing going for me! _Why the hell am__** I**__ so special?!_"

The Doctor paused, looking at her. She looked right back at him, and she guessed he was either about to say something comforting or explain why the Cybermen wanted her. Instead, when he opened his mouth, all that came out was,

"…You have eleven other foster brothers and sisters?"

"_Doctor!"_

"Right, right, sorry! That's a good question, actually, why do you want her? She's only the State Champion of Louisiana in archery. Why not go for the national or Olympic champ?"

"She is a master of many talents. It is also written." The Cyberman replied.

"Written!" Pepper snapped, "Where on earth is all this written?!"

"Not on earth."

"Where, then?!"

The Cyberman didn't answer.

"You see?!" Pepper glared at the Doctor, "They don't answer me any more than they answer you!"

The Doctor sighed, then looked around, muttering, "Maybe we're just asking the wrong questions…" Then he looked back to the Cyberman they had been talking to before. "How does Pepper qualify for software?"

"She has many useful talents." The Cyberman replied.

"But what will you do to her? How will you get those talents out of her? And will she survive?"

"Oh, finally, my safety comes up! Glad to know that's priority…" Pepper said sarcastically.

"She may not live." The Cyberman monotoned.

"But what will you do?" The Doctor repeated, "How will you get it out of her?"

"We have built a machine for this purpose alone."

"And is it reversible?"

The Cyberman took a long pause, then he replied, "She will not live."

"Alight," Pepper groaned in frustration, "Since I'm the only one that seems concerned about my safety… Couldn't you just copy and paste them from my brain?"

"Ah, clever! The Doctor grinned, "Brilliant, Pepper Houston!"

"This is impossible."

"Yeah, brilliant," Pepper looked unenthusiastically at the Doctor, "Yay, me…"

The Doctor shot right back at the Cyberman, "Okay, if you can't copy and paste, and she would be dead after you perform this 'extraction', then why leave a body behind? Why not make her one of you? Isn't that your goal in life? To 'upgrade' the whole world?"

"This is also impossible; she is not compatible."

"Now _that's_ what's impossible. She's human! All humans are compatible, I would know, I met your creator! The only person that's come in contact with you that isn't compatible is me!"

The Cyberman didn't have a chance to answer. Suddenly, there was a voice that came over the loudspeakers in the ship, garbled and warped so neither the Doctor or Pepper could tell who or even what the voice was. "What is going on down there? Why hasn't the software been downloaded yet?!"

"We are being stalled," The Cyber-spokesman answered, "the software will be downloaded shortly."

"Who was that?!" The Doctor asked. He would receive no answer, as the Cybermen started to drag Pepper away from him, towards a giant piece of machinery, some technology that apparently allowed them to extract the information they needed from her. "NO! STOP THIS! WHO'S YOUR LEADER?! TELL ME!" The Doctor thrashed and screamed at them, trying to reach Pepper.

The morphed voice came back over the loudspeaker, but it seemed different, softer and less harsh and commanding, but still unintelligible. "Is that the Doctor?"

"Yes." The Cyberman answered.

"Incinerate him!"

The Doctor thrashed and struggled, his eyes growing wide as the Cybermen dragged him down the hall to a large metal door that had a sign painted over it that said: "WARNING: DANGER OF FIRE". But just there, right by the door, there was a lever. It was simple, that lever: metal, about a foot long, with a black rubber grip. It looked like a very insignificant lever.

A very _convenient_ insignificant lever that happened to be labeled "Emergency Shut Down".

The Doctor happened to notice that lever, and he almost paused in his struggle to get away. Almost. Instead of actually pausing, he changed his motives. He worked on slipping his arm out of the grasp of the Cybermen long enough to pull his Sonic Screwdriver and point it at the lever, making the lever push itself down. The Cybermen all froze, even the ones trying to trying to wire Pepper into the machine.

Just as the Doctor thought the Cybermen were all going to shut down, the entire ship shuddered and pitched, throwing its passengers to the floor and starting to fall through the air over Louisiana.

"What did you _DO_?!" Pepper yelled from where she was on the floor, holding onto a pole supporting the room they were in. The Doctor braced himself against the sides of a niche in the wall, watching the Cybermen glitch and stumble around, trying to carry out their duties as their ship fell through the atmosphere.

"I might have… shut down the ship's power."

"_WHAT_?!"

"It said 'Emergency Shut Down'! I thought it was for the Cybermen!"

"It would have said 'Emergency CYBERMAN Shut Down', you moron!"

"Hey, I was helping!"

"Fat lot of good that did! Now we're plummeting towards Louisiana at a thousand miles an hour! What's your next plan, genius?!"

"If you would stop _shouting_, I could think!"

"No, you've done enough!" Pepper decided to take matters into her own hands then, and that probably saved both of their lives. She dove for the controls, trying to figure out how to veer the 'sinking' –rapidly sinking, if sinking at all—ship away from land.

"It's… It's like a _joystick_…" She said, in shock. "This whole control panel is like an old arcade came console! Very Retro, I like it…" She started pressing buttons all over the place, like she used to do with her foster brothers at the arcade when she was younger. She looked like a child at play, and the ship made a bumpy, unsteady curve to the south, heading for the Gulf of Mexico instead of for New Orleans.

"Pepper!" She looked up as the Doctor called her, and noticed that she was now surrounded by Cybermen. She uttered a couple foul words under her breath, then shimmied down below the controls, quickly weaving through the Cybermen's legs with the agility of a snake.

"Run!" She shouted as soon as she was past them. The Doctor grabbed her hand, and the two of them ran through the ship, hand-in-hand, back toward the TARDIS. There's a certain exhilerating feeling in running for your life, I've experienced it myself. The knowing you might die at any second, that the person chasing you might actually catch up, but Pepper told me that running with the Doctor at her side was more fun than scary. It was the one thing she looked forward to on all of their adventures: running, hand-in-hand with the one person she ever truly trusted.

They both burst through the doors of the TARDIS, the Doctor heading for the console and Pepper slamming the doors shut. She scrambled up the ramp, standing next to the Doctor and holding onto the side of the console as the TARDIS took off, making that same sound as before. As soon as the ship stopped shaking, the Doctor straightened his jacket, standing up.

"Well, here we are, Pepper Houston." He said, smiling at her.

"Where's here?" Pepper's eyebrows furrowed, and she stood up slower. "Where did you—"

"I took you home," The Doctor replied, leading her down the ramp and out the front door of the TARDIS, "Safe and sound, the night we left."

The sky looked like a watercolor painting behind the white plantation house: layers of pink, red, orange, and yellow, blended together as if by a true artist's hand. Pepper stepped out onto the dirt road, gazing up at the beautiful view. The Doctor stood in the doorway to the TARDIS, smiling after her. She seemed to stumble for a bit, her head spinning. This was all so unreal.

"That's it?" Pepper gaped, "We had to have been gone for longer than that, we were on a spaceship outside of earth's atmosphere; that's hardly a couple hours' trip…"

The Doctor grinned and patted the side of the TARDIS, "That's the beauty of the TARDIS… It's a time machine."

"Time machine?" Pepper chuckled, "Well, after all that's happened today, I'm not surprised…" She looked at her house, glowing in the light of the summer sunset. "Well… I guess that's it then…"

"It doesn't have to be," The Doctor looked at her, smiling softly, "You could travel with me…"

"You mean this is just a normal day for you? Nearly get killed, fight aliens, and come inches from destroying the planet, pulling up at the last second?"

He grinned, "Oh, that's a boring day for me."

Pepper scoffed, "That's not something I want to be a part of." The Doctor's smile turned sad as she walked away from him.

"You sure?" He asked, "Not even one trip? A calm one? No aliens?"

Pepper chuckled, "No, no… I don't think I could handle it…" She turned to go, the Doctor watching her head up the drive, and turn back to look at him. "I don't think I could ever do any of what you do! It's insane, and against all reason…"

"A valid point, but who would want to listen to reason?" The Doctor grinned, "I never do."

"I can see that!" She laughed, looking at him. "Come back when you make sense."

"Oh, I'll never make sense…" He replied, still watching her and leaning on the doorframe of the TARDIS. "Guess this is goodbye, then?"

"…Maybe."

"Maybe? I like maybe…"

She chuckled to herself, "Come back tomorrow, and we'll see."

Pepper started humming, waltzing back towards the house as if in a dream, humming the song _Maybe_ from the musical _Annie_. The Doctor watched her for a few more seconds, then he went back inside the time and space machine. Pepper turned around again when she heard the takeoff noises, a certain mechanical, distinctive sound she would never forget. Even today she wakes up from dreams of her adventures, swearing she can hear the TARDIS in the distance. She chuckled and skipped up the steps to the house.

That night, I came in as she was packing a few bags. When I asked her what she was packing for, she never answered. She only grinned at me, and came over to give me a big hug and a kiss on my forehead. She told me she was going away for a while, and to go tell Mama. I told Mama, and Mama talked to Pepper for a long time. It ended with another big hug, and Pepper said goodbye to all eleven of us, and Mama and Daddy.

"What time is this man coming to pick ya up, Pepsi?" Collin, one of the younger brothers asked.

"I don't know," Pepper said, "As soon as he makes sense." That confused all of us, but we all went to bed after Pepper gave all of us her love. She went to bed as well, but when I got up that next morning, she was gone. I even got up earlier than she usually does to make sure she didn't leave in the morning, but she must have left during the night, so I didn't get to see her again. Well, I saw her again, but it was much later.

Turns out, as Pepper slept—in that light-but-heavy way she always does—she was waiting. She had a feeling he would show up that night, even though reason told her he wouldn't, but she took the Doctor's advice and ignored reason. That night, as the green numbers of her digital clock ticked from 12:00 to 12:01, that same mechanic, distinctive, unforgetable sound came back. Her eyes snapped open, and she flung her blankets off, grabbing her packed bags and running outside as fast as was pysically possible without waking any of us up. And there they stood, the Doctor and the TARDIS.

"It's tomorrow," the Doctor grinned at the girl with the suitcases, "You going my way?"

Pepper laughed, "Maybe…"

"You seem to like that word, 'maybe'…" the Doctor said.

"I do… I love to think about what might be; maybe someday I'll meet the man of my dreams. Maybe someday I'll meet my real parents, maybe someday I'll actually want to have kids…" She looked up at the star-filled sky, "Maybe there's actually life out there… Though you've answered that one…"

"Ah, but there are much more species than Time Lord out there…"

"Time Lord, is that what you are?" Pepper asked.

The Doctor nodded, "Yes… But like I said yesterday, I'm the last of my species… There are others out there that are more than I am… The Cybermen don't even count because they're always artificially made. Humanoid aliens, animalistic ones, ones you can't even see! They're all out there…" He pointed to the stars, as if pointing out which planet belonged to whichever alien race.

"And you know all of them, like you memorized an encyclopedia about them, right?" She chuckled. He echoed her chuckle, and his smile said it all.

"Would you like to see them?" He asked.

She grinned, "Down to the last little green man." He made way for her, and she all but leaped into the TARDIS, dragging her bags, the Doctor not far behind her.

And in that moment, the stars glowed brighter. Something much bigger and older than the universe itself was being set in motion, by that little interaction between Pepper and the Doctor. Something outside of the Doctor's beliefs, and something Pepper never would have imagined happening to her.


	4. Chapter 2, Calling the Doctor

**Happy November, e'erybody~**

**Sorry, I'm a tad later than I planned. However! I have this week off for Thanksgiving break, so I will be writing like crazy! Promise, alright?**

**Much Love,**

**DR**

* * *

It was too easy for her to get out of her room. The locks on the door were easy to pick, as they were old and not well armed. They never turned the alarm on, they only warned the girl that loud bells will ring if she tried to open the door. It took a lot of courage for her to do it the first time, because she was very scared of loud noises. The voices didn't like loud noises. They might get mad at her if she made a loud noise.

The screams of the other people in this eerie building echoed through the decrepit halls and chilled the little girl to the bone. Why would anyone expect her to sleep when all these horrible things were going on? The doctors shouting at the screaming patients to be quiet, the patients screaming to be let out and the other insane things they shouted at the doctors, while the little girl with the long, straight blonde hair and green-blue eyes padded down the dark hallways, guided only by the light of the moon outside the window.

Her name was Annabelle, and she wasn't supposed to be there. This place was for people who couldn't control their thoughts and actions. This was a place for scary people. A little girl, only nine years old and owning nothing but a white nightgown, a pink Sunday dress, and a stuffed rabbit, which was all she was allowed to bring with her, shouldn't be there. She wasn't scary, she was a friend. A friend to ghosts. But they weren't friends to her, they scared her. She prayed every night that they would leave her alone, or someone would come and save her.

No one else could see these ghosts. She could talk to them, but they couldn't talk to her. They could only scream and whisper things she couldn't understand. Until, one day, the ghost she saw the most—she named it Henry, although she was unsure of its gender— actually spoke to her. It whispered in her ear, _"Come see the Stars, friend. Come see her." _and it kept whispering "come see her, come see her, come see her" as she walked down the hallway.

She wasn't sure what Henry meant by 'come see her', but she knew that she would have to go outside to see the stars. She finished her walk down the hallway, then began to quickly and quietly descend the stairs. She had to sneak past the doctors' and nurses' lounges, but after that, she was in the clear to get out into the closest meditation garden. From there, she could stand out in the unrestrained moonlight, and the light of the stars above.

Suddenly, the whispers she barely heard grew louder. The shadows and silhouettes she barely saw gained more shape. They danced and spun around her, glowing in a bluish white light. One face she kept seeing on all of them, a face that flickered as the ghosts spun and hissed and danced.

_"See her, see her, see her!"_ the ghosts chanted.

And Annabelle did see her. The face on the ghosts, a young woman, though the voices of the ghosts were all different and didn't sound like they belonged to the face. The face was pretty, smooth, with freckles across her nose, and bangs that were an unnatural blue. She was smiling at first, but then, her face twisted into one of evil and hatred, and Annabel jumped back, scared. The ghosts disappeared, their whispers echoing throughout the garden.

Just as the ghosts stopped their whispering, a new sound reached the girl's ears. It was a metallic whirring, and it started to fade as a big blue box materialized on the other side of the fence. Annabelle, still scared, shakily approached the fence. The sound of a door opening and closing reached her ears, and over the fence came a man in a blue suit with hair sticking up every which way. Annabelle didn't see the face of the woman behind him at first.

"Oh, hello," the man smiled at her, "What are you doing out here so late?"

Annabelle was about to answer when she saw the face of the young woman who came over the fence, the girl who was now standing just behind the man.

She screamed.

* * *

Disruptions: A Doctor Who Fanfic

David Tennant

Cecelia Monet*

Chapter 2: Calling the Doctor

* * *

Have you ever been to a mental hospital? There's a big difference between a normal hospital and a mental one. A lot of times, the normal ones are nice. They're clean, the doctors and nurses are nice, and the air always smells sharp, like rubbing alcohol.

In a mental hospital, you feel antsy. You feel uncomfortable. It doesn't matter who you are and whether or not you judge people, you can't help but feel like you're surrounded by possible psycho killers. The doctors and nurses seem nice, but you never know how corrupt these places might be. You never know if once you're done with whatever business you might have there, the doctors and nurses are evil. You don't know how trustworthy they might be. That uncertainty of what kind of people are around you can and will chill you to the bone and make you not want to go there. Ever.

Pepper's first ever trip to a mental hospital—this one was built when they were still called asylums—well... She got lucky. She didn't have to go alone. As I was getting old, I had to put my younger brother in a mental hospital for severe schizophrenia, and I had to go alone.

Pepper was lucky. She had the Doctor at her side.

"So! First trip on the TARDIS!" the Doctor grinned at Pepper, "Where do you want to go? Forwards, or back? Or, we could go to an alien planet."

Pepper thought for a second. She had no idea where she would want to go. There were so many places she wanted to visit: the Titanic, Ancient Greece, her future, alien planets, galaxies, suns, star clusters, everything! It was hard to pick.

"I-I don't know...!" She said, looking blown away. Then, something moving in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She picked up a little notebook with a little sheet of paper inside, which was folded open so she could see it. The sheet of paper was blank, or so she thought. As she watched, writing appeared, as if someone invisible was writing on the paper while she looked at it.

_Help me, I'm scared, the ghosts are coming, _it said.

"That's my Psychic Paper..." the Doctor said, walking to stand beside her, "What does it say?"

"Psychic Paper... That's not something you see every day..." Pepper said as the Doctor read the message.

"The paper makes you see what someone wants you to see... It can get a message from someone too... Well, sort of. Well, not really... It's very rare." After a pause he said, "We must be close!" He took the paper and ran to the TARDIS console, pressing buttons and flipping switches.

"What are you doing...?" Pepper asked, following him over.

The Doctor continued his work, speaking at ninety miles an hour, "We wouldn't be getting this message if someone weren't sending it. If someone is calling out that means there has to be a signal, and if there's a signal, then there has to be someone sending it—"

"You just love hearing yourself talk, don't you?" Pepper chuckled. The Doctor gave her a small pout.

"Wha's wrong with that?"

Pepper laughed, "Nothing. Allons-y!"

The Doctor grinned at her, "You're catching on! Brilliant!" with the throw of one last switch, they were off, the TARDIS making that same metallic sound, the one Pepper would never forget. The entire room shook, and they both had to hold on as they shot through the time vortex.

As the whirring stopped, a soft thud sounded, and the Doctor rushed to go out first, taking his coat off of where he'd thrown it before—over one of the branch-like supports—and slipping it on real quick. Pepper took longer, as she was pulling on her bow and quiver, but joined the Doctor as he was out the door.

They'd landed on the side of a fence opposite a small garden, with well-kept bushes and plants and flowers, which met both of their gazes as they climbed over the fence. There was a certain smell in the air, as if the air itself was gilded with the scent of the flowers to hide a certain evil underneath. The freshly cut grass sparkled with dew as the sky sparkled with stars, a little bit of blue on the horizon put the exact time somewhere between four or five in the morning.

There was a small girl standing in the garden, her blonde hair falling against her back and her turquoise eyes wide with fear. A white nightgown billowed about her ankles. As Pepper turned around to look at her full-on, the terror in the girl's eyes intensified as she saw Pepper full-on, and she screamed.

"Wot?" The Doctor said, very confused as the girl turned and ran. Lights came on in the building, and the Doctor repeated, "Wot?"

Pepper rolled her eyes and groaned, "Perfect." She tried to climb back over the fence, as the Doctor, once again, repeated, "Wot?!"

Before Pepper could make it over the fence, and before the Doctor could come to his senses and take off after her, someone came out into the garden. The little girl ran to the nurse, preferring the consequences of sneaking out of her room over having to face the people her ghosts warned her about.

"Annabelle! What's going on out here?!" The woman hissed, standing slightly in front of the little girl protectively.

"Just a routine check," The Doctor said quickly, holding up his Psychic Paper, "Inspector John Smith, known as 'The Doctor'."

The nurse's eyes narrowed skeptically, "And you came in through the garden gate?"

"No one was answering the door, I think your doorbell is broken," Pepper added, holding out her hand, "Pepper Houston; I'm his assistant."

The nurse didn't take her hand. Instead, she took a step backwards. "The nerve, frightening a little girl like that!"

"Terribly sorry, we didn't know anyone would be out here..." The Doctor looked questioningly at Annabelle, who seemed to be looking up at him. What he didn't know was that she was actually looking behind him, where one of the ghosts had reappeared, making the most demonic face it could. Annabelle screamed again, this time running into the building.

"Oh, what now?!" The nurse groaned, looking none too happy that she had so much to deal with at the wee hours of the morning, "Listen, come back when the waking world is out of bed, alright?" She shot this over her shoulder at the Doctor, then turned to run back inside, shouting, "Annabelle!"

"See?" The Doctor said to Pepper once they were alone and back over the fence, "There was no need for running!"

Pepper shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Whatever... Do you think the little girl is the one that sent us the message?"

"Absolutely. No child in their right mind would be up at three in the morning out in the garden; what was she, nine or ten? No, a child like that living in a place like this—"

"Doctor..."

"—she'd have had to be—"

"Insane."

The Doctor looked at her with the soon-to-be-familiar "you're-stealing-my-thunder" pout. Shaking her head, Pepper pointed to the sign that read, in big, bold letters:

**BETHLAM ROYAL ASYLUM**

The Doctor's face fell. "Oh..."

"That paper thing said 'Save me from the Ghosts', right?"

"Yeah, 'Help me, the Ghosts are coming', Ghosts with a capital 'G', which is strange..."

"It was probably just a girl scared of her own shadow who happens to be schizophrenic."

"Pepper, that was rude! What if she is actually haunted by ghosts, and the only person who could see them is her, so they assumed she was crazy and put her in the Loony Bin...?"

"If that's the case, then I'll buy you an ice cream cone once we find out, okay...?" Pepper rolled her eyes, shrugging her bow and quiver off of her shoulder and setting them just inside the doorway of the TARDIS. "Anyways, would you like to explain where we are?"

"Well, judging by the city skyline and the Union Flags everywhere, I would guess we're in London. I love London this time of year. Very cozy."

"So we're in London..." Pepper said to herself, amazed. She'd never been out of the country before, but she knew there was no way they could have made it to London in less than a minute. "That's weird, what up with all the vintage cars on the street...?"

A small grin inched its way onto the Doctor's face, "And in the nineteen-twenties, who knew."

"The _twenties_!" Pepper proclaimed, looking at him with a very astonished expression, "And here I am in jeans and a Beatles t-shirt!"

The grin only widened on the Doctor's face. "I think I can help with that."

* * *

"You have yet to cease to amaze me, Doctor." Pepper said as she stepped back into the main control room of the TARDIS. The Doctor, who was looking at something through his fake glasses on his computer monitor, turned to look at her.

He'd told her to go look through one of the TARDIS's multiple closets for something era-appropriate for the twenties. She'd chosen a pale pink dress that came down to her knees, which had a white bow just below the collar, and no waistline. She'd braided the longer parts of her hair and tucked them up into a white hat with an arrangement of white-and-peach fake roses on the side. A long string of fake pearls dangled around her neck.

"You seem to have a lot of women's clothes in those closets," Pepper continued, arching an eyebrow, "Something tells me I'm one of many..."

Pepper thought she saw a sad look cross the Doctor's face before he muttered, "Well..." and turned back to the screen. She knew it must have been a hard topic, so she decided to change the subject. She trotted down to the console, trying to look over his shoulder.

"Whatcha up to?" She asked.

"Trying to find the girl whom we accidentally scared off in the garden... AHA!"

Pepper jumped at the sudden exclamation. "What?! What happened?!"

"The only Annabelle they have in Bethlam Royal currently is nine-year old Annabelle Duncan, committed by her parents, Penelope and Theodore Duncan—her own parents, that's awful!—one of the doctors diagnosed her with... Schizophrenia? How did they figure that out in the nineteen-twenties?"

"Wait, they didn't know what schizophrenia was in the twenties?"

"No, they knew what it was, but they didn't have a name for it- well... They didn't have a way to diagnose it- well... Not like you have in your time..."

Pepper chuckled, "You talk as if you come from a different time than I do..."

The Doctor looked at her, "I do..."

Pepper blinked, confused. Then, she seemed to understand, "Ah, I get it, time machine."

As the Doctor was about to explain that what she thought was his story wasn't the entire thing, but he decided to save that story for a rainy day. "...Yes, time machine... Speaking of which, why don't I show you the rest of the TARDIS?"

"You mean there are even _more_ rooms than the ones I saw?" Her big blue eyes got even bigger as the thought reached her mind. The Doctor grinned.

"Oh, dozens. Have you seen the swimming pool?"

"Dear God, _you have a swimming pool_." The Doctor chuckled and lead her up towards the other rooms and hallways and corridors of the Impossible Blue Box that Shouldn't Have Fit Inside Itself.

After a few hours of exploring the TARDIS—well… Pepper was exploring, the Doctor was more of an escort—they judged it was probably time to go and investigate the asylum.

When they stepped out of the box, it was nine-thirty in the morning. This time, instead of sneaking in through the garden, they went to the front door and rang the bell. Thankfully, a man answered the door, and not the fussy nurse from the night before.

He wore an ill-fitting white lab coat that had really short sleeves, revealing his cruel-looking pale hands. It was unbuttoned over a brown waistcoat and a white button-up shirt, as well as a pair of dirty black slacks.

"Can I help the two of you? Visiting hours haven't started yet." He said.

"Ah, we're not visiting anyone," The Doctor said, holding up the psychic paper, "Inspector John Smith, Scotland Yard, I've come to do a routine inspection."

"We haven't been informed of any inspection..." The man frowned, "We aren't prepared..."

"Surprise Inspection, boss's new idea." Pepper said, smiling at the man. He gave her a look.

"And who is this?" He asked, looking very annoyed at the girl.

"I'm his assistant," Pepper responded, "Pepper Houston."

The man at the door looked at the Doctor, "I apologize, Inspector Smith, come on in."

The man introduced himself as Arnold Clarke, the groundskeeper at Bethlam. He took them around to each of the different wards and the Doctor asked questions, some questions Pepper would never have thought of. Some of the hallways were lined with white rooms and looked quite clean. These were the rooms of the amnesiacs and insomniacs, mutes, narcoleptics, and anorexic and bulimic patients.

There were less well-kept rooms as well, but the groundskeeper wasn't as thorough about the treatments issued in that part of the asylum. These were mainly the obsessive-compulsive patients, the recovering drug addicts, the pyromaniacs and the kleptomaniacs.

Then, Mr. Clarke lead them through intensive care.

The walls were stone, almost making it look like a dungeon, which it probably was at one point in the hospital's history. The tunnel-like hallway was lit only by oil lamps, as if someone didn't bother putting electric lighting because no one went down there more than twice a day. Each "room" was a cell, with floor-to-ceiling iron bars that were the only things that looked new, as if they'd been recently replaced. Down in the depths of the intensive care ward lurked the true asylum-worthy patients. They were the schizophrenics, the severely anxious and the truly insane, with no names to their disease.

Pepper found herself walking closer to the Doctor on this part of the "tour". Something about the dungeon-like ward freaked her out. It might have just been the creepy lighting, cobwebs, and worn, dirty stone. Or was it that she was surrounded by people who had all lost their minds? It really wasn't like her to judge, but she was allowed to be scared, when they were the ones who were screaming to be let out, foaming at the mouth, or snarling like animals and leaping at the cells they were kept in. Somehow, the bars looked much more flimsy when they were being clawed at and shook.

"Are you sure those bars are strong enough?" Pepper asked, trying to keep a quiver out of her voice. The Doctor gave her a look to warn her to watch what she says, but in seeing how scared she was, he kept quiet.

"Not to worry, Miss Houston," Mr. Clarke said, emanating an air of ill-hidden annoyance, which seemed to be becoming a norm for him, "The bars were recently replaced. Just a year ago."

"They look flimsy is all I'm saying..." She said quietly.

"In my opinion, you shouldn't be saying anything at all!" Clarke snorted, "If women were meant to speak their minds, they would have jobs like men do!"

Pepper was silent, but the fear in her eyes had melted into a fire of lost respect for the groundskeeper. The Doctor merely shook his head, knowing it was the time period speaking, and not the man. Well, maybe. Well... Maybe not.

"That ends our tour." Clarke concluded with a rushed tone, as if this was cutting into precious time. "What do you think, Inspector Smith?"

"Ah, just call me the Doctor."

"You are a medical practitioner as well?" Clarke said, arching one of his bushy eyebrows.

"That's just my nickname; the Doctor. Tell me now, Mr. Clarke, Does this hospital have a special ward for children?"

"_Children?!_ What kind of place do you think this is?" Clarke snorted. "There are no children here. Children cannot be diagnosed; they're far too young to have developed any mental illnesses."

Pepper knew that wasn't true, but certainly there had to be children; Annabelle wouldn't have snuck into the garden. Besides, the nurse that came to her knew her. There were children here, Pepper knew it. But why would the groundskeeper either not know or lie about it?

"That's interesting. Very interesting. Tell me, then, Mr. Clarke, what of the gardens?" The Doctor asked, as if it were relevant to the situation.

"They are therapeutic for some of our—"

"No, I know that, fresh air does everyone good," the Doctor said, crossing his arms, "But what about the tricycle?"

Clarke's expression fell. Something flashed across his face that Pepper couldn't place. Whatever it was, she didn't get a good vibe from it.

"What tricycle?" He asked, his voice deadly calm.

"Last night, I passed by the garden—which is beautiful, whomever takes care of it is brilliant—but there was a tricycle sitting over by the back fence. It was old and rusted, and there was grass growing all around it, and it looked like it had been the for a while. Now, tell me, groundskeeper, why would there be a tricycle in a mental hospital that has no children?"

Clarke was silent. His eyes flashed not with confusion, as Pepper (and probably the Doctor too) expected, but with anger, like the subject of the 'children' rubbed him the wrong way.

"Have you finished with your inspection, _Doctor?_" His name sounded sour on Clarke's tongue. "Because if you have, I will be going back to my work now."

The Doctor smiled, a glint of knowing in his eyes, and said, "You can go back to work, if you don't mind me looking around a bit."

Clarke grit his teeth, "Just see that you do not go poking your nose around where it shouldn't be, Inspector Smith." With that, the grumpy groundskeeper left.

"Why's he hiding that girl?" Pepper asked, following the Doctor as he set off down the hall. "He looked really angry when you asked about her..."

The Doctor mumbled, taking a better look around, "I don't know..."

"Bethlam was notorious for the torture that went on here..."

The Doctor looked back at her, and he knew that they were thinking the same thing. If this little girl, Annabelle, was being hidden, something awful might be happening to her. Something that might end up in an unnecessary death.

"Wait, DOCTOR, FREEZE!"

"Wot?!" He stopped and looked back at her, surprised at the sudden shout.

"You almost stepped in that!" Pepper pointed to the filthy floor, where a puddle of pitch black, lumpy sludge lay, right where the Doctor had been about to step. "Whatever it is, it can't be good!"

Eyebrows furrowing, the Doctor squatted next to the puddle, "What is /that/? Good eye, Pepper... but I have no idea what it might be- Well..." He cut himself off, like he always did, "I might have seen it before... I can't remember the name..." He reached forward with a stretched out finger, as if he was going to poke it.

"What are you doing?! That could be dangerous!"

Before the Doctor could answer her, there was a mad giggle from the cell they were standing next to. The sound of chains clinking reached Pepper's ears, and she stood back to see a scrawny little man with wild brown hair, a scraggly beard, and wide, chilling amber eyes. His skin was clammy and an almost gray shade of beige, and his mouth was turned up in an insane grin.

"Lonely Man! Surrounded by friends! Lonely, lonely traveler!"

The Doctor's head snapped up, looking with wide eyes at the man. "_Wot_."

The patient giggled, "Pretty girl~ pretty, pretty star-shine girl!"

"Ignore him, Doctor, he's just mad—"

"Mad!" The man screeched, "Noooooo, I see! I'm here because I seeeee...!"

"See what?! What do you see?" The Doctor demanded, gripping the bars of the cell and giving the man a hard look.

"Everythinnnnngggggg... Everything and more! More! More!"

"Doctor, he's not—"

"Drip, drip! Drip! Dripping off the butler-man! Slop, slop! Slopping on the floor! Lonely, lonely! Loooonely Man!" The man twitted, grinning and turning his head to the side, looking at the Doctor.

Pepper's eyebrows furrowed. "Butler? What butler?"

"Looks are deceiving, dearie!" He cackled, straining against the chains that kept him tethered to the dingy wall, "Not a butler... But he acts like one! Ooooohhhh! Watch out for looks!"

"Looks, why do you keep going on about looks...?" The Doctor muttered.

"...Butler..." Pepper whispered, thinking. Why would there be a butler in a mental hospital? Unless...

"Like the groundskeeper?" Pepper looked at the mental patient. "Do you mean Mr. Clarke?"

"Ooohhhhhh looks are deceiving!"

"Whose looks?!" Pepper repeated.

"DECEPTION!" The man screeched, "DECEPTION AND EVIL! The poor child!" He wailed over and over, "Poor child!"

"Pepper, leave him alone...! He could just be having an episode..." The Doctor kept his eyes on the man, pulling Pepper away protectively.

"But Doctor, he—"

"Pepper, he's a patient in an asylum, he's just saying things." His eyes, however, gave him away. Pepper knew a lie when she saw one, and that was the first one she saw from the Doctor's eyes.

"Why don't I believe you...?" He didn't answer her. Instead, he knelt and scooped up some of the sludge in a small vial. He pulled out a pair of plastic black glasses and quickly threw them on, looking at the substance through the glass of the vial.

"We should get back to the TARDIS..." The Doctor muttered, "I need to get this analyzed. Allons-y!" He took off, Pepper right behind him.

* * *

Back in the TARDIS, Pepper sat on one of the two chairs near the console, her legs curled under her, and watching the Doctor work. He reminded her of our Mama while she was making things in the kitchen: mumbling to himself as he darted back and forth along the console, and sometimes shouting things that made no sense and had no relation to the things he had shouted out before. He had those glasses on again, though Pepper knew he didn't need them.

"What about that patient that was screaming at us?" Pepper said finally, cursing herself for sounding so weak.

"Pepper, I told you not to worry about that..." The Doctor answered, distracted by whatever he was doing.

"Too late, Time Boy." Pepper replied as she got back up, stretching her legs for the first time in an hour. "Because not only did he call you Lonely Traveler, he also called me 'Pretty Star-shine Girl'. And while I do appreciate the compliment, there was something about the way he said it that made me wonder..." Her eyebrows furrowed as the gears started turning in her head.

The sudden silence made the Doctor look at her, his attention finally off the console. "Made you wonder what...?"

"Well... What you said to me yesterday... About the Cybermen not being able to make me one of them? You said they couldn't 'upgrade' you because you're not human. What if... W-what if that means—"

"You're not human..." The Doctor mumbled, looking at her with a furrowed brow. "I don't know... You look pretty human to me..."

"So do you, Doctor..."

"Well..." Suddenly, his look changed from questioningly calculating to incredibly horrified and confused. "No..." He muttered. Then he whipped back around to face the console, searching for something. He turned back with a stethoscope and put the little plugs in his ears.

Pepper gave him a look, "You have to be kidding me."

"Not kidding," He said, "Don't mind me, just breathe normally."

"No wonder they call you the Doctor..." Pepper chuckled to herself, standing still and breathing normally. The Doctor placed the metal disk over the spot on her chest where every normal human's heart would be. He nodded, moving the disk over to the other side, then he made a slightly disappointed face.

"Well, you don't have a binary cardiovascular system, so you're not a Time Lord like me..."

"Bi what now?"

"Binary cardiovascular system," he repeated, "Time Lords have two hearts."

"Sure, why not?" The real question, however, was much more baffling than the one Pepper asked. If she wasn't a Time Lord, and she wasn't human, then what was she?

"I don't know of a species that looks and functions the very same as a human's... But isn't..." the Doctor gave Pepper a weird look, "You're strange, Pepper Houston..."

Pepper snorted at him, "Look who's talking!"

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, then they both burst out laughing. It would have been a nice occurrence if they hadn't been interrupted by an urgent beeping coming from the console.

"Aha!" The Doctor ran over to the monitor, squinting at it through his glasses.

"Does it know what that black goo was?" Pepper asked, trying to read over his shoulder.

"It should... But... That's..." He slipped the glasses off his nose and got close to the screen, his mouth slightly open, "It's just sludge, there's no name for it- well... Not really. It's just called 'sludge'. It's waste. But it's completely made of calcium and carbon." He looked at her like she was supposed to know what that meant.

"And...?" Pepper drawled, her southern accent poking through.

"_And_ what are human beings mostly made of?"

"...calcium and carbon?" Pepper shrugged, "I was really bad in biology..."

"But if the substance is combined calcium and carbon, that would mean it is..." He drew out the 'is', expecting her to answer.

Pepper's eyes widened, "A decomposing human body?!" She cried in disgust, "That means whomever the 'butler-man' is—"

"—Which I'm assuming is our friend Mr. Clarke—"

"Is a real _motherfucking_ zombie!"

"Hey! No cursing!"

Pepper rolled her eyes, "Yes, mother."

"Plus," The Doctor continued, ignoring the crack, "I'm not sure 'zombie' is how you'd describe it... More like something is occupying Mr. Clarke's body. His body somehow can't sustain whatever is possessing him, and is decomposing at a rapid rate..."

"And leaving behind that sludge..." Pepper muttered.

"I think I want to have a conversation with Mr. Clarke..." He stood back from the console, adjusting his suit jacket. "Why don't you try and find Annabelle?"

"How's that supposed to work?" Pepper asked as the Doctor threw his coat back on and made his way to the door, "Last time she saw me, she screamed! Doctor!" But he was gone. Pepper groaned and stamped her foot in frustration. "Ugh!"

* * *

Pepper found her way back to the garden they'd been in the night before. She hopped the fence with less ease this time, as she was a little more self-conscious in this dress (a dress that wasn't even hers) than her comfy jeans and t-shirt.

When she finally got over the fence, she brushed the dust off her hands and looked around the yard. There, over in the corner, was the rusty old tricycle that the Doctor had been talking about. Pepper's eyebrows furrowed. The little tricycle didn't look like it had been parked where it was. Who would park it out in the open, away from the wall, where someone could trip over it? Then she looked at the ground around it. The grass was overgrown and all dead, which was a huge contradiction to the well-kept grass in the rest of the garden.

"That's Jimmy's bike." Pepper jumped, then she whirled around, a hand over her heart.

"Goodness gracious, child you scared me—!"

It wasn't a child that had gotten her attention. It was a young man, maybe a couple years younger than her. He had short, choppy black hair that was gelled back against his head. His eyes were a stormy gray, and if Pepper looked long enough, they seemed tinted blue. He wore brown slacks with suspenders, and a white button-up shirt with little turquoise pinstripes. The one thing that struck Pepper was his face. He was very pale, with high cheekbones and dark circles under his eyes.

The first thing that came to Pepper's mind when she saw the pale skin and dark circles: Twilight Vampire. She kept her mouth shut, since she knew the guy wasn't going to get it; it was way before the times.

"I'm sorry." The guy smiled sheepishly, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Pepper waved her hand passively, barely able to look away from his eyes. "It's alright... What were you saying, something about a kid named Jimmy?"

The guy nodded, "Yes... But I'm being rude; My name's Geoffrey Bates. But you can call me Geoff." He held out his hand with a very charismatic smile.

"Pepper Houston," Pepper said, grinning softly, "Nice to meet you, Geoff."

"Now, Jimmy..."

"Right, Jimmy... What happened? Why hasn't this thing been touched?"

His face became slightly darker as he stepped to stand next to her. "He died on that bike."

"Poor boy..."

Geoff smiled sadly, "His story is a tragic one. His parents didn't want him, so they declared the poor boy as crazy and dumped him off here. The doctors were horrible to him."

Pepper snorted, "No surprise there."

"Yeah. The poor kid was driven insane just from being here. One day, he was out here without a nurse, and just as he was rounding the corner—"

"He keeled over? From wha—" Pepper cut herself off as she saw Geoff shaking his head.

"He didn't just up and die."

"Then... What—"

Geoff smiled, "You won't believe me if I tell you."

"Try me."

"He melted like ice cream under the sun of Africa. Saw it myself." Pepper raised her eyebrows in surprise. Geoff chuckled, "I told you you wouldn't believe—"

Pepper cut him off, "Was it black and lumpy?"

"...How did you—"

Pepper shook her head, "Long story... That poor man...!" She turned heel and hurried into the building, Geoff right behind her.

"Whoa, whoa! Where're you going?" He asked as he tried to catch up with her.

"To find the groundskeeper!" Pepper called back.

"His office is over here!" Geoff grabbed her hand and led her down the hall. Pepper stumbled, but didn't fall as she followed him down the hall towards the office. Suddenly, Geoff stopped. Pepper nearly ran into him, and was about to reprimand him for stopping so suddenly, but he held up a finger to his lips.

"Hear that?"

Pepper listened closely to the empty hallway. She thought she couldn't hear anything, but just as she was about to voice her thoughts, a faint scream reached her ears.

"So someone's screaming. It's an—"

"Hush and listen."

The more Pepper listened, the more the screams formed words.

"—don't let them take me! Don't let the ghosts take me!"

"Ghosts—?" Geoff didn't get to finish, as Pepper shot off towards the voice. "Pepper!" He ran after her as she bolted up the nearest staircase, following the noise. That was strange (read: not strange or unexpected at all.), they did not go through this place on the little "tour" Clarke gave them.

At the top of the stairs, there was a hallway branching off to the left and right. More, smaller hallways stemmed off of it, but this one looked like a main hallway. The screaming was coming from a little girl being dragged down the hall by her hair. After a second, Pepper recognized her as the girl from the garden the night before: Annabelle. The man dragging her was a "doctor", or looked like one, at least.

"Shut up, you stupid girl!" The man snarled, "You'll stay in solitary confinement until you stop screaming about ghosts! There's no such thing as ghosts!"

"But I know a demon when I see one!" Pepper shouted. "Let the poor girl go."

The guy looked startled. "Wha—?!Visitors are not allowed up here!"

Pepper narrowed her eyes. "Why wouldn't visitors be allowed to see the children's ward?! You treat them as equally awful as you'd treat the intensive care patients!"

The guy's ears turned pink. He said nothing, but he shoved Annabelle back down the hall. "Go back to your room," He growled "I'll finish with you later."

"No, you won't." Pepper snapped back, "You can't treat her like that—!"

"And who are you to tell me what I can and can't do, woman?!" The doctor snarled, "You do not work here, and you do not—"

"And who are _you_ to tell her what to do?!" Geoff said, finally stepping forward and making himself known. The guy's eyes widened, and he took a step back, swallowing nervously.

"M-Mr. Bates, sir—!"

"You leave this woman alone, or I'll just have a little talk with my mother." This made the guy freak out even more, then he stuttered an apology to Pepper and took off down the stairs.

" 'Leave her alone or I'll tell my mom'?" Pepper laughed, "Really? That's the best you can do?"

Geoff chuckled, "Well, when your mother is the Headmistress, you kind of get a little pull when it comes to her employees." He started off down the hall, to where Annabelle had been heading.

Pepper let that sink in a bit. "...wait, your mom's the headmistress?!" She cried out, then started follow him, "That changes things!"

Geoff didn't reply. He was at the door at the end of the hall, knocking. "Annabelle...? It's Geoff; don't worry, the man is gone now..."

The door flew open immediately after he said that, and the little girl leaped into his arms. Geoff smiled, and Pepper had to bite her lip to keep from cooing. If she knew anything, she knew puppy love when she saw it. She'd seen her little brothers and sisters (even the ones older than her sometimes) and the other kids they'd fancied over the years. She'd experienced it herself.

"Are you gonna tell your mum on him, Geoff?" Annabelle asked, her little voice as musical as wind chimes.

"Of course, love." Geoff said, a soft smile on his face. Pepper, smiling, pondered the two of them. In her time, nine-year-old girls don't date fifteen-year-old boys; there were even some laws against it. However, when considered, they were only six years apart. They might make a great couple when they were a bit older. It was sweet.

"Who's—" Annabelle cut herself off with a gasp, "Y-you! You're from last night!"

As a look of alarm crossed the child's face, Pepper held up her hands to show that she had nothing to hurt the girl with. "Hey, hey, kid, just listen to me, okay...? I'm not going to—"

Annabelle covered her ears, "S-stop! Get away from me! The ghosts say you're evil!"

"Annabelle!" Geoff said in surprise.

Pepper's eyebrows knit in confusion, "I-I'm not, honey! I'm here to help you!"

Annabelle peeked out from behind Geoff's shoulder, her eyes still scared, but now they were analytical as well, as if trying to tell if Pepper was telling the truth or not. Pepper didn't know why the "ghosts" would tell the traumatized child that she was evil; she didn't happen to know any ghosts. The only person she knew that would have 'friends on the other side', was her friend Shaniah, whose mama owned a voodoo place on Bourbon Street.

"Listen to me, okay, sweetheart?" Pepper said, "Whatever these ghosts told you about me, I'm not a bad person. I just started at this whole... Traveling-and-helping-people thing." Pepper had been about to say something about time travel, when it occurred to her that these two knew nothing about time travel and the Doctor. So she just left it out.

Annabelle looked at Pepper for a long time, then she whispered something to Geoff, who, in turn, nodded at Pepper. She took that as an okay to enter the room as they did.

Annabelle sat on the bed, Geoff keeping protectively close. Pepper sat in a chair across the tiny room from them, and Annabelle told Pepper her story. She told her about how her parents and all the people around her thought she was crazy, and how her parents dumped her off here as soon as the family doctor told her she had—

"Schizophrenia." Pepper nodded, "Tell me, is that what the doctor called it?"

Annabelle nodded, "No one knew what the doctor meant when he said that. He didn't explain it very well."

"Schizophrenia is not supposed to exist yet," Pepper muttered, then she shook her head and made herself more easily heard, "Schizophrenia means that you have delusions and you hear voices in your head."

"I hear voices, but I'm not crazy!" Annabelle said defensively. "The Ghosts are real!"

"I know; and I believe you, honey." Pepper nodded, "You didn't even know me, and you were suddenly scared of me. You said the ghosts told you that I'm-"

Suddenly, the air in the room dropped below zero. Pepper's breath hung around her chin like fog. Geoff held Annabelle close, but it did nothing to help Annabelle feel more safe. Pepper felt for her. She could hear the ghosts inside her head; there was no escaping them.

Then, as suddenly as it had come, the cold was gone. However, it had left behind a screaming Annabelle.

She had fallen to the floor, her body convulsing, and her hands pressed to the sides of her head. "GET OUT! T-TOO MANY!"

"They must be inside her head!" Pepper said, kneeling quickly and putting her hands on the girl.

As soon her hands touched her, a light flashed before Pepper's eyes. Suddenly, she was in darkness. But wait... It wasn't quite dark. She could still see her hands. And, in the distance, she could see small points of light in the distance. Were those stars? They were small, and closer than she thought they were. There was one small ball of light she felt she was close enough to grab, but it was just out of her reach. The more she tried to reach for it, the further away it floated.

This was a dream she had often. She had talked to our Mama about this dream, and Mama always told her that little star was her future. Now, Pepper wasn't so sure. She wasn't too sure if she even wanted to think about her future, much less try to change it. Now that the Doctor said she might not be human, maybe that little star was who she really was. It was right in front of her, but she just couldn't reach it.

Finally, right when she thought she had it, the dream faded.

"—ight? Can you hear me, Pepper?"

Pepper's eyes lazily blinked open, and the fuzziness of her vision slowly cleared and focused on the Doctor's face.

She meant to ask what happened and when he got there, but it came out like: "Wubummrgh...? Wennegegah...?"

The Doctor smiled, "Good, you're alright. How do you feel?"

Pepper looked up at him. Her tongue was swollen, and her throat was dry. She managed to mumble, "Dru...nk..."

The Doctor chuckled and helped her sit up, "Lightheaded? Sick to your stomach? Anything else?"

"Mmmmhhmm..."

"Do you need a ginger ale...?"

"No... M'good... Wha'appened?" Pepper rubbed her eyes.

"Well, according to your friend Geoff, you just collapsed." The Doctor stepped back, and Pepper took in the rest of her surroundings. She was still in Annabelle's room, and Annabelle and Geoff were standing on the opposite side of the bed from the Doctor. Annabelle seemed fine now, but Pepper could see different emotions twitching on her face, as if there was still conflict going on in her head.

Pepper sat up, looking at Annabelle. "You okay now, hon?"

Annabelle shrugged, "I guess..." She was lying, Pepper could tell.

"You look like you've been under anesthesia," The Doctor said.

Pepper shrugged, "I just touched her and blacked out."

"Annabelle was having a seizure," Geoff explained, "She's done that before, multiple times."

"Huh." The Doctor crossed his arms, looking at Annabelle, "Did these 'seizures' happen before those 'Ghosts' appeared?"

"No," Annabelle shook her head, "It started happening when the Ghosts would get in my head..."

"What do these Ghosts say, Annabelle, do they threaten you...?" Annabelle shook her head.

"They warn me about stuff... They told me Pepper was evil... Now I'm not so sure if what they is right..."

The Doctor smiled at Pepper, a silent congratulations for getting Annabelle to believe her. "Why's that, then?"

"I 'unno." The girl shrugged, "She's just... I trust her..."

Before the Doctor could ask any more questions, Annabelle's eyes rolled back into her head and she crumpled to the floor. Pepper and Geoff both tried to leap to her aid, but they were stopped as the Doctor stepped in front and held them back.

"Don't! If you touch her, you'll black out! She's a walking anesthetic!"

Annabelle rose again, except she wasn't alright anymore. Her eyes remained rolled back—or maybe they didn't. Maybe her retinas and her pupils had just turned to white. Her face had lost the childlike rosy hue it had possessed before, as well as the happy look any child should contain. She looked very possessed, and the twitches of emotion had ceased. Instead of flickering between emotions, her face was completely blank.

The Doctor looked at the possessed girl, as if he'd seen something like this before. "Am I speaking to the Ghosts?" He asked cautiously.

When she opened her mouth, it wasn't Annabelle's musical voice that sprung forth. It sounded more like a bunch of voices whispering all at once, "We are not ghosts. We are not of this world."

"Which world are you from, then? What are you?" He asked, Pepper and Geoff remaining quiet.

"We are of Planet Saanthum."

"Saanthum!" The Doctor cried in astonishment, "That's all the way on the far side of the _Sygnus_ Galaxy! What could you possibly want with this little Earth girl? Even better, how did you get here?! You'd have to burn up a red giant to get all the way here!"

"Our planet was long ago destroyed by the first battles of what would become the Time War. We fled. We are the last remaining Saanthumites in existence."

The Doctor sighed and scratched the back of his head. "That seems to happen a lot more than you'd think..."

"We must feed." The Saanthumites said.

"Yeah, and you've been feeding on a lot more than the fear of a scared little girl." The Doctor said gravely.

"Those ghosts are _feeding_ off of Annabelle?!" Geoff shouted, "How do we stop it?!"

"You cannot stop us," The Saanthumites said, "Once she is fully developed, we will devour the rest of her."

"Like hell you will!" Geoff was probably about to make a threat, but the Doctor stopped him.

"Geoff, calm down; don't do something you won't regret." He said.

"Do not think you can overpower us," The Saanthumites said, "We are invincible in this body, for none of you will hit a child."

"Which is the best thing about you all," The Doctor said, "You're cowards; _insane_ with self-preservation—which is very appropriate that you picked an asylum as your setting—so insane that you hide behind a human shield when anyone tries to attack you, which is mainly why you go for children. You wait until they've gone just as insane as you, then you devour them!"

"You know nothing, Doctor."

"Ah, I wouldn't say that," Pepper put in, "He knows a lot more than me..."

Instead of answering, "Annabelle" screeched at them, making Pepper jump back in surprise. The girl's body floated as if someone had picked it up on wires, and flew past them, out the door and down the hall.

"Follow her!" The Doctor shouted. The three of them ran after her, dodging surprised nurses, doctors, and patients. Every time the possessed girl passed by a patient, they collapsed, screaming. It didn't matter what they had, something about the floating body spooked them and sent them into episodes. It was all the Ghosts doing, trying to clutter the trail to slow the followers down.

Right as Pepper thought she was going to catch up, the ghosts sent a big mirror crashing to the floor. The Doctor pulled her back before she could get cut by the glass or hit by the frame. By the time they had all made it over the clutter, Annabelle was gone.

"Damn it!"

"Hey—"

"We lost her," Geoff interjected before the Doctor could chide Pepper for cursing, "We have to find her before those things eat her!"

"Before she ends up like Jimmy." Both guys looked at Pepper, one questioning and one horrified.

"I won't let that happen!"

"Wait, wait, wait," The Doctor said, "Who's Jimmy?"

"Doctor, you 'member that tricycle from the yard?"

"Yeah...?"

Pepper nodded, "That used to be his. He died suddenly by bursting into that black sludge we found in the dungeon. I don't think Annabelle is the first person these ghosts have gone after."

"Poor lad... Let's think now..." The Doctor looked at Geoff, "What would Jimmy and Annabelle have in common?"

"Well... Jimmy's parents dropped him off here because they couldn't take care of him... Poor kid was so lonely..."

Pepper's eyes widened, and her eyebrows knit. She pointed at Geoff, "Say that again...?"

"He... He was lonely...? He didn't have many friends..."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, "What about loneliness...?"

"Remember that guy?!" Pepper said to him, snapping her fingers, "The guy that we thought was calling you the 'Lonely One'? Maybe that wasn't meant for you!"

The Doctor started to pick up on what she was getting at, "Yes... Maybe it was meant for Annabelle! Oohhh, Pepper, you are brilliant—!"

"Doctor, he also said 'Lonely Man' when he was talking about the 'butler'."

"Butler? You mean Mr. Clarke?" Geoff looked slightly confused. When Pepper and the Doctor looked at him, both pairs of eyes wide, he continued, "Some of the patients and I call him the butler because my mother treats him like one..."

"...Doctor—"

"He's in danger. ALLONS-Y!" He took off again, towards Mr. Clarke's office, Pepper and Geoff close behind.

"MR. CLARKE!" The Doctor shouted as he skidded to a stop in front of the open door of the office. There was a nurse inside, whom turned, eyes wide, scared, and filled with horrified tears. She stepped aside, revealing a set of bones covered in black sludge.

"H-he just... H-he—"

The Doctor went to inspect it, while Pepper tried to calm the nurse down. Geoff stood in the doorway.

"Lonely... He was lonely..." He muttered, looking confused and rather flabbergasted, "I knew he had no family, but I... I never knew—"

"Geoff, it's alright... It wasn't your fault..." Pepper said, patting the nurse's back.

"I-I know it's not my fault, but... If I'd known he was that lonely, I would've been nicer to him..."

"There's nothing we can do about it now. We need to focus on finding Annabelle."

"I think I know where she might be."

Pepper had never seen an exorcism anywhere but on TV. She hoped to never see another one again.

Annabelle was right where Geoff thought she would be: the garden where Jimmy died. The Doctor commented on how the Ghost had a sick sense of keeping their 'messes' contained. Pepper had made a face and told him to keep comments like that in his head.

When they found Annabelle, she was worse than she had been before. She looked like she was having a seizure on the ground, her body shaking and convulsing and making horrifying noise. Blackness was creeping onto her skin, preparing to make her melt as the Ghosts ate her up from the inside.

Once again, Pepper vowed never to watch The Exorcist again.

"Give up now, Saanthumites!" The Doctor called. Annabelle stopped convulsing, and a wisp of smoke drifted from her open mouth, which formed a ghostly bust, that looked almost human.

If humans had three heads, with three slitted eyes and four mouths each.

"We shall never cease!" The figure hissed, its faces shifting so Pepper could never tell what they actually looked like, besides the extra facial features.

"I'm offering you a chance to surrender," The Doctor repeated, "I can't let you disrupt the patients here! Some of them are already crazy enough without your help!" Then he leaned over to Geoff and muttered, "No offense."

Geoff shrugged, "None taken."

"Listen, Sahntherooms-"

"Saanthumites," The Doctor corrected.

"Listen, Ghost guys," Pepper shot a glare at the Doctor, stepping forward to address the figure, "You're lonely. I get it, I've been there. You feel like no one gets you, that you have no friends, and you fear no one will because you're the last of your kind."

The Saanthumites were silent.

"Look... I know why you go after lonely people. Especially here, where no one helps the patients as much as they should. You think that someone like Jimmy, who feels he has no one else in the world, has no one to trust and no one to love or be loved by... You know they'll be quick to trust you... So you go after them, drive them insane, and then eat them. But that's not okay by me."

Pepper really wished she had her bow and arrows. She hated speaking in front of people (or, in this case, aliens) she didn't know. Her bow, even if it couldn't hurt these ghosts, would make her feel more confident. Because the looks she was getting from those nine eyes were nothing less than unnerving.

"Plus, you've got the wrong girl!" She said. "Annabelle isn't lonely! She has Geoff, who loves her more than her own parents, and now she has friends in me and the Doctor!"

The Saanthumites screeched and flew up as if they were expelled from Annabelle's body. She gasped and sat up, shaking, the black spots on her skin gone completely now. Geoff rushed to her, pulling her into his arms. She clung to him, bursting into tears.

The Ghosts dissipated with a dying screech, and Pepper looked at the Doctor, "Are they gone, then?"

The Doctor grinned at her, "Yes. And you were brilliant."

* * *

Geoff and Annabelle had thanked them and said their goodbyes, and the Doctor and Pepper hopped the fence again, heading back for the TARDIS. The Doctor pulled the levers and pushed the same buttons as before; pulling the TARDIS out into space, he said.

"So, how was your first trip?" The Doctor grinned at her.

Pepper grinned back at him. "Brilliant. And freaky." She made a face at the last adjective, then went on to say, "Definitely not watching The Exorcist again. Ever."

The Doctor chuckled and leaned on the TARDIS console. "Where to now?"

Pepper was about to give the 'I don't know' excuse, when the TARDIS lurched, sending both of them tumbling to the floor.

"What happened?!" Pepper shouted from her spot on the floor.

The Doctor scrambled to get up-without answering-and ran out the doors of the TARDIS with Pepper close behind him. As soon as his feet hit grass, he found himself looking down the shaft of an arrow.

"Who are you?!" The woman holding the bow asked. Her face was half-covered by a golden helmet, and her auburn hair was curled and brushed over her shoulder. She wore a tunic, covered by heavy armor and a sword strapped at her waist.

"Wot?!" The Doctor squeaked.

"How did you get here?!" The woman asked.

"What?!" Pepper joined in.

"Take them to the Queen!"

"_What_?!" They both chorused.

* * *

Chapter 3 Preview:

_"How did we end up in Anchient Greece?"_  
_"Better yet, how did we end up prisoners of the most dangerous women in History?!"_

_"Wait, your majesty, let me introduce myself."_

_"She's a woman who can fight, we need her in our warriors."_

_"What happened?!"_  
_"It's Archemedia! She's been attacked by the Medusa!"_  
_"Doctor, what is she?!"_  
_"A Weeping Angel."_

_"Pepper, whatever you do, don't look at her. Don't open your eyes, no matter what happens."_

_~Doctor Who~_

**What do you think? Itching for the next chapter? I can't wait either! ewe review please~**


	5. Chapter 3, Pepper the Amazon

Happy holidays, guys!  
QnQ this was later than I expected it to be, I'm sorry… And I think I forgot to put a disclaimer on the last chapter…

* * *

All rights to Doctor Who go to its brilliant creators; I only own Pepper.

* * *

The Doctor chuckled and leaned on the TARDIS console. "Where to now?"

Pepper was about to give the 'I don't know' excuse, when the TARDIS lurched, sending both of them tumbling to the floor.

"What happened?!" Pepper shouted from her spot on the floor.

The Doctor scrambled to get up-without answering-and ran out the doors of the TARDIS with Pepper close behind him. As soon as his feet hit grass, he found himself looking down the shaft of an arrow.

"Who are you?!" The woman holding the bow asked. Her face was half-covered by a golden helmet, and her auburn hair was curled and brushed over her shoulder. She wore a tunic, covered by heavy armor and a sword strapped at her waist.

"Wot?!" The Doctor squeaked.

"How did you get here?!" The woman asked.

"What?!" Pepper joined in.

"Take them to the Queen!"

"_What_?!" They both chorused.

* * *

**~INSERT THEME MUSIC HERE~**

**Chapter 3: Pepper The Amazon**

**DAVID TENNANT**

**CECELIA MONET**

**DOCTOR WHO**

* * *

Have you ever heard of feminism?

By dictionary definition, feminism is the promotion of women's rights as equal to men. Some people, however, take feminism to the extreme, and think that women are better than men. Pepper and I, after her adventures with the Doctor were over, always called these extremists Amazons, like the Ancient Greek band of warrior women. I picked it up from her, as did the rest of our younger brothers and sisters, but I never knew why.

When she told me about this adventure, I figured it out.

Pepper was still in her peach dress when the Amazons captured her and the Doctor. They poked spears at the two of them, trying to get them to move forward.

They soon arrived at a large camp. Trees were cut down to make room for large fire pits and even larger tents, surrounding a large bonfire. Clotheslines hung between the tents, and men in tunics dragging balls on chains behind them by their ankles hung clothes on them. Pepper looked at the men strangely. They merely looked at her sadly.

While she was watching the men, the girls with the spears shoved both her and the Doctor to their knees.

"Kneel before Queen Hippolyta!" one of the women said.

"Ooh, you're kidding!" The Doctor grinned, "_The_ Queen Hippolyta? Leader of the famous Amazons?!"

"Have you a problem?" Out of the largest tent came another girl, but she was taller than most of the others, and much more muscular. She had a gold helmet like the rest of them, but she had hers at her waist, under her arm. Her skin was olive in hue, her hair dark and very curly. It was kept up in an almost beehive hairstyle, twined with strands of gold to keep it up. Her eyes were a cold, striking green, and her face was hard and merciless.

"No, no no no! Not at all!" The Doctor grinned at her, "I'm very excited, I'm a big fan of yours!"

The cold in Queen Hippolyta's eyes toned down a bit. She seemed to gain at least an ounce of respect—or was it ego?—from the Doctor's gratefulness. She turned her eyes to Pepper.

"You do not dress your man like anything I've seen before." She said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Pepper waved her hands in front of her, and the Doctor shook his head, muttering, "No no no no..."

"We're not together." The Doctor said.

"He is _not_ my man!" Pepper shook her head wildly.

"But you travel together?" Hippolyta asked, slightly confused.

"Yeah, but we're just friends." Pepper nodded in agreement.

"And this... Box in which you travel in... Is it blessed with the magic of the gods? My warriors tell me it appeared from nowhere, making odd noises."

"Actually, it's—" the Doctor began, but Pepper cut him off.

"Something like that, yeah." He looked at her, like 'why-are-you-lying-to-them-when-I-was-about-to-get-all-scientific-and-look-smart-to-the-people-who-almost-killed-us'.

"These aren't the type of people that would want to hear you babble about science," She hissed at him, "I know people like this back home."

"Are you a warrior, girl?" Queen Hippolyta asked Pepper, effectively changing the subject. Pepper was taken by surprise by this.

"You mean... can I fight?" Hippolyta nodded, and Pepper shrugged, "I do martial arts... and I can split an arrow."

It was Hippolyta's turn to look surprised. The Doctor looked at Pepper, muttering, "You mean that thing you did at the archery thing?"

Before Pepper could answer, Hippolyta called her up, "Stand, girl. show me how you can split arrows." Pepper got up and walked shakily forward. There was nothing that scared her more than a girl stronger than her.

I remember when Pepper used to come home from school beaten up. She used to be bullied by the girls at school who were bigger and stronger and better fighters than she was. These bullies were the reason Pepsi learned martial arts, and the reason she got into archery. As she became a better fighter, the bullies left her alone. However, the fear of being bullied never left her, and she is still to this day hesitant around people who are bigger than she is.

One of the Amazons handed her a bow, and she took an arrow from a quiver stationed on the ground. Quickly, and as if it were second nature to her, she nocked the arrow and aimed at a tree about twenty feet away.

_Aim._

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

_Relax._

_THUNK!_ Went the arrow. When Pepper looked around, she saw the Amazons were still waiting, unimpressed thus far. She swallowed. She couldn't mess this up. She wouldn't let herself. She went through the process again, making sure her hands were steady. This was just like the archery competition.

The cracking of wood reached her ears before the sight of the second arrow splitting the first one in half reached her ears. Time didn't slow for her like it had in the competition, it kept going on, and she turned to face the shocked warrior women behind her. Hippolyta herself looked very impressed.

"That was perfect," the Queen said with an amused smile, "I could use archery talent like that..." One of the other girls, the auburn-haired archer they'd met just outside the TARDIS, frowned at the Queen's remark.

"My lady, she hardly has the look of an Amazon about her," The girl said, "Look, she's put a blue tonic in her hair...! And that strange tunic she wears—"

"Phoebe, we are the Amazons, not the maids of Aphrodite." Hippolyta gave Phoebe a look, and Phoebe was silent, allowing the Queen to continue, "We will welcome any worthy fighter who wishes to be with us."

"Um..." Pepper put in nervously, "I'm... not looking for a job... I have a job back home..."

"You do?" The Doctor asked, probably without thinking. Pepper rolled her eyes and ignored him.

"That is disappointing," Hippolyta said, "It would be nice to have someone like you in my warriors..."

Pepper was about to apologize again for the fact that she couldn't stay, but she was prematurely cut off by someone screaming. Everyone whirled around, and the Doctor tried to peek around the women blocking his view.

Into the camp ran two other warriors, dragging a girl between them. Pepper gasped, her blue eyes wide at the state of the poor girl. She was the one screaming, her skin bright red and looked like she'd been burned. In certain places, her skin looked gray and clammy... but wait... it wasn't just drying out...

It was turning to stone.

"My lady!" One of the women dragging her shouted.

"What happened to Archemidia?!" Hippolyta ran over, quickly looking the poor girl over.

"It was the Medusa, my lady! She came out of nowhere!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Medusa?!" Pepper asked, running over. The Doctor was quicker, getting to Archemedia exactly as Hippolyta did. When the warriors protested, he pulled his stethoscope out.

"I'm a doctor." He then proceeded to examine Archemedia, muttering to himself about possible diseases or something like that.

"Don't worry, he knows what he's doing," Pepper said to the girls. She turned to the two who had carried Archemedia in, "Tell us what happened. What's this Medusa thing? I thought Medusa was just a myth?"

Hippolyta shook her head, "Medusa is as real as I am. She lives in the mountains between here and Athens, and terrorizes the villages around there. She can turn anyone into stone by looking into their eyes."

"But she actually has the snakes for hair and stuff?" Pepper looked surprised.

The taller of the two girls who had brought Archemedia in shook her head, "That is myth. Archemedia was with us one moment, and gone the next; we assumed she had found a stag to hunt. Next thing we knew, we heard her screaming in the distance. We tried to bring her back as fast as we could, but..."

"Your efforts are acknowledged," Hippolyta nodded, turning to the Doctor, "There is no saving her, Doctor. She will be lost."

"I-I'm sorry, my lady," Archemedia stammered, tears coming to her eyes. Hippolyta shook her head.

"Do not be sorry; your nobility shall be honored."

"Hey, hey, hey!" The Doctor said, looking at both of them, "If I can just find out what's wrong with her—"

"Doctor..."

"She is turning to stone, that's what is wrong with her!" Hippolyta snarled at him, "There is no cure for this! She will become a statue at the hands of the Medusa!"

"Doctor...!"

"Medusa doesn't exist! I've seen a disease like this, but it shouldn't be—"

"Doctor!" Pepper shouted, staring at the girl on the ground in horror. "She's growing wings!"

"Wot?!" The Doctor quickly looked down at Archemedia, who was, in fact, growing wings out of her back. They quickly stiffened and turned to stone. The Doctor's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, and he pushed everyone back.

"Get back! Get back and no one look away from her! Keep your eyes on her!" He shouted. The Amazons started to complain, but Pepper reminded them that the Doctor knew what he was doing, and they reluctantly obeyed.

"What is the meaning of this, Doctor?!" Hippolyta glared at him, taking her eyes from Archemedia, who had stopped screaming and was almost completely stone now.

"This is impossible... This can't be..."

Archemedia wasn't human anymore. She had completed her transformation. Her skin was gray and hard; even her clothes and hair had changed. Pepper thought it was strange that she had grown wings; she also noticed that in her last seconds, Archemedia had brought her hands up to cover her face, like she was crying.

"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..."

"Doctor, what _is_ she?" Pepper asked, looking down at the poor girl.

"A Weeping Angel."

"What the hell is a Weeping Angel?!" Pepper asked. The Doctor kept his eyes on Archemedia.

"The most dangerous killer in the universe." The Doctor muttered, "They don't exist when you're looking at them; they literally turn to stone when they're being watched. But look away for one second, and they move. They are fast, faster than you can believe."

"So, what, look away and they snap your neck?!" Pepper looked at the statue on the ground in horror.

"Worse. If they touch you, it sends you back in time. They kill you in the worst of ways; they let you live to death, then they feed off the energy of the life you could've lived..." The Doctor looked sadly at the statue. "I've met them once before... Two people died before I could stop them..."

"So... Why is she crying? Why be a _Weeping Angel_ and not just a killer Angel?"

"They're not really weeping; they cover their eyes so they don't look at each other. If they do..." The Doctor trailed off, waiting for Pepper to pick up on it.

"They..." Her eyes widened as it came to her, "They... stay looking at each other... they don't move for the rest of time!" She looked up at him, and he gave her a knowing grin.

"We have to get Archemedia's body to the burial site..." Hippolyta was saying to her warriors. The Doctor turned to her, eyebrows furrowed.

"_Wot_ burial site?"

* * *

Hippolyta lead a small procession, including Pepper and the Doctor, through the woods to a sheer cliff wall.

"If they have a burial site for their warriors..." the Doctor was saying to Pepper, "Then maybe this isn't the first time this has happened. Queen Hippolyta!" He tried to catch up to the leader of the procession, "This whole... Medusa thing. Has it happened before?"

Hippolyta nodded, keeping her eyes ahead. "Every once in a while, we lose a warrior to the Medusa... But these happenings are few and far between."

"So you bury them underground?! That's dangerous!"

"We do not bury them, Doctor. You will see."

Pepper didn't see the cave until they passed through the entrance. it was so well hidden that she doubted anything could find it. As if to match the hidden entrance, the hallways in the cave wound off into the unknown, making Pepper grateful that the Amazons knew where they were going. Then, when she looked at the walls for a little while, she noticed a little trail of silver along the left wall. So that's how they knew; they had an Ancient Greek GPS.

After a while, the cave widened, and the ceiling shot up, turning the tunnel into a large, cylindrical room cut almost perfectly from the cliffs. Columns held up the roof and kept the ground above them from collapsing. One of the Amazons took a torch and put it down in what looked like a stone flower planter like our Mama kept outside the kitchen window at home. As soon as the fire hit it, it lit up, trailing along the wall and lighting up the entire room.

Bodies rolled up in burial shrouds lay on top of each other in little niches in the wall, almost like the catacombs in Italy. The lighting system sloped as high as nine feet all the way around the room, and the flames not only provided perfect light, but they also burned up the musk that was in the air, leaving behind only the smell of death. Which, in Pepper's opinion, wasn't all that helpful.

What seemed a little silly were the chained-up statues. They were shackled to the wall, hand-and-foot, like prisoners. Then, as her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw they had wings and similar robes to Archemedia's. They were covering their eyes in different poses: some had arms thrown across their faces, some looked like they were weeping, like Archemedia was, and one was even facing the wall, its hands over the sides of its face like it was trying to see through a window.

"This is interesting..." the Doctor said, grinning at Pepper, "I've never seen anything like it..."

"Are you impressed, Doctor, with how we honor our dead?" Hippolyta asked, a small twinkle of amusement in her eye.

"Oh yes. This is much more than impressive; brilliant, you all are. Absolutely brilliant!"

Suddenly, there was the sound of chains clattering and straining. Numerous pairs of eyes glanced over, and Pepper saw that all of the statues had moved. They had uncovered their eyes, and their faces were not angelic looking at all. They all had sharpened pointed teeth; their stone skin wrinkled about their eyes and mouth as each jaw dropped in a snarl. Each statue had its arms in a different position; some arms were up, some down, and one of them, Pepsi told me, looked to have a "come-at-me-bro" stance.

"They moved!" Hippolyta cried, "They've never moved before!"

"That's probably because there's always someone looking at them when you come in..." Pepper said, walking over to look at the angels.

"Pepper, don't get too close... I have a feeling those chains won't hold for long..." the Doctor warned, taking a couple steps behind her.

Pepper looked them over. They didn't look so bad when you got up close, she told me; they looked more like Halloween decorations when you were right next to them. Speaking of Halloween, one year, after all her adventures with the Doctor, Pepsi scared the ever-living-light out of all of us—her siblings, that is—by painting herself grey and dressing like one of those weeping angels. We thought she was a new decoration, she stood so still in the front yard; then, I remember blinking, and then, she snarled and threw her arms up and we ran off screaming.

These Angels didn't have as much of a sense of humor. They didn't move while she was blinking, since all the others were watching her. She shook her head, turning to walk back to them.

"I don't know what the big deal is... They're all right as long as we're all looking at them..." Pepper said.

Hippolyta nodded to her girls, "Make sure the chains do not fail." They quickly set to work moving Archemedia from the little cart they'd fashioned for her, to another spot on the wall with chains.

"Are you sure those chains will hold?" The Doctor asked Hippolyta. Pepper might have been mistaken, but she thought she heard an edge in his voice.

"They have not failed before." Hippolyta said, raising a brow; Pepper could tell she heard the edge too, and was questioning it.

"I hear that tone," Pepper said to the Doctor as the Amazons were chaining the statue to the wall, "Are you... are you _scared_?"

The Doctor most likely tried to look at her like she was crazy, but she could still see the fear in his eyes. "I don't get scared. I'm just being cautious..."

Pepper smiled, "Ohhh, it's more than thaaat~" She teased him.

The Doctor pouted and looked at the opposite wall. Pepper smiled to herself. "It's alright, y'know..."

"Hm?" The Doctor looked back at her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Pepper smiled softly and shook her head, "Never mind..."

* * *

Back in the camp, Pepper took to talking to the other archers in the Amazons, while the Doctor wandered over to one of the men, who was doing the washing up. The other men seemed nervous, especially when they were being looked at by the women.

" 'allo," the Doctor said to him. The man looked up nervously, then smiled.

"Hello..." He said. "You're with the woman who split the arrow, yes?"

"Yeah—well, not really... _with_ her, with her, but we travel together..."

The man nodded, "My wife is over there..." He nodded to one of the archers talking with Pepper, the taller girl who'd brought Archemedia in after the "Medusa" episode. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he sighed dreamily and muttered, "Demetria..." Then, he seemed to shake himself out of it and hide his feelings again. "I'm Atticus, by the way..."

"Nice to meet you, Atticus, I'm the Doctor." Atticus took the basket full of wet clothes and walked to a clothesline, starting to hang them up.

"Tell me now, Atticus, what do you think about this whole... "swapped roles" ideology the Amazons have? D'you think it's fair that the women treat the men like women are supposed to be treated...?" Pepper heard about this conversation only later, and was not surprised to hear that the Doctor was only asking in context.

Atticus smiled and shrugged, "I think these women deserve to be respected... I do what Demetria tells me to do because I love her and respect her."

"But if you believe that—don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with believing what you do—wouldn't you want equality, instead of being told you can't do something because you're a man?"

Atticus shrugged, "These women are superior than us men; they fight much better and keep much more control over certain situations. I believe they deserve to do the jobs they do. I couldn't fight, anyway, I have a bad knee..." He chuckled and continued to hang up the laundry.

It seemed to make sense; the men seemed to actually believe that the women were superior. The Doctor seemed at least slightly impressed, and he muttered a quick "nice meeting you" to Atticus before walking back over to Pepper. She was still talking and laughing with the girls, which made the Doctor smile. Sometime between the point were he had started talking to Atticus and when he started back over towards them, Pepper had followed the girls back into one of the tents, and was currently walking back out with them, wearing a short, white tunic.

"You see, Demetria?" The shorter blonde grinned at the taller girl, "She's just my size!"

Pepper did a little twirl, checking out the fit, "It does fit pretty well! Thank you!"

"Well, someone's having fun." Pepper looked up at him.

"Hey!" She grinned, "Come to join us?"

"I saw you talking to my husband," the tall girl, Demetria, raised an eyebrow at him, "I hope you're not putting thoughts in his head..."

"Nah," The Doctor said, "Just wondering what he thought about you all..."

"And what did he say?" The other girl laughed, "That his wife could rival the goddess Artemis herself?!" Demetria elbowed her fellow Amazon hard in the ribs.

"That's sacrilege, Helena!" Demetria said, "You're just jealous because he doesn't have a mind of his own!"

"Nay, _you're_ the one who's jealous of Adrian," Helena grinned at her friend, "Because _he_ has decent gonads—"

"Whoa, there, let's not insult his manhood now," Pepper said, trying very hard not to bust out laughing like Helena did. The Doctor scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I hate to interrupt this fifth-grade sleepover, but can either of you tell me anything more about the Medusa that's been hassling this side of the mountains?" The Doctor asked, ignoring an annoyed look from Pepper.

Helena and Demetria gave each other a knowing look, and Helena sighed, deciding to start the story herself.

"It was thought to have started long ago... before our time, at least. Queen Hippolyta doesn't like us to talk so much about it..."

"She does seem like the kind to want to keep you all from panicking..." The Doctor mumbled.

Helena nodded and went on, "The whole reason the Amazons came here was because we thought we could beat it. We thought it was the Medusa of legend, the gorgon slain by Perseus hundreds of years ago, come back from Tartarus, and laying in wait for more heroes to sacrifice their lives to slay her. Then, party after party of our warriors went out and didn't come back—"

"Wait, do you mean to tell me more than what was in that tomb were changed into Weeping Angels?!" The Doctor's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Oh, dozens. We used to be so many before this..." Demetria put in.

Pepper's mouth hung open. "That means—"

"They're still out there."

"Son of a bitch."

"Pepper..."

"Sorry..."

* * *

Pepper was sure the Doctor had a plan when she offered to go with him to "Medusa's" hideout. She had no idea that the plan he had in mind was similar to the one she had when one of our younger brothers found a seemingly dead possum in our backyard: "poke-it-with-a-stick-and-see-what-happens".

"Are you seriously planning on walking up to her front door, knocking, and saying 'ello, I'm the Doctor, is Medusa home'?!"

"Yeah, pretty much..." He said, leading her towards the cliffs.

"We could've at least taken a few of the girls with us, in case she attacks us..."

The Doctor looked back at her, "Who's to say she'll attack?"

"Well, who's to say she won't?" Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.

The Doctor shrugged, "Well..." Pepper rolled her eyes and kept her bow at her side, looking around to keep an eye out for imminent danger. Every time she heard something in the woods, her hand would fly to the end of an arrow sticking out of her quiver, ready to pull it out. At one point, a sparrow flew past her, and she pulled an arrow out, nocked it, and aimed at the bird. As the animal flew away, she sighed in relief. The Doctor looked back at her.

"Edgy...?" he asked.

Pepper shook her head, "Just cautious..."

"Think your arrow could kill a Weeping Angel? They turn to stone in less than a second..."

"You said they 'turn to stone', right?" The Doctor nodded, and she continued, "So then they're fleshy when they're not being looked at?"

"I have... no idea... I hope you're not planning on slaughtering them...?"

Pepper shrugged, "I have to know I have some method of defense..." The Doctor sighed and ended that discussion there.

Through the forest they kept walking, the Doctor looking for possible places "Medusa" could have holed up, Pepper looking for possible things that could attack them. She was turned around and walking backwards when the Doctor stopped in front of her, but she was about to stop herself. Off to the side, she saw a tiny little cottage, which gave off a sort of homy and friendly feeling as if it were Granny's house from the old Red Riding Hood fairytale. There were wildflowers growing all around it, and the stone walls gleamed as if they'd been scrubbed down. The grass around the place was cut, but slightly uneven, as if it had been hacked at with a sickle by an amateur.

The Doctor, however, found what Pepper had been looking for. He stood almost face to face with another angel. He kept his eyes open, but then he noticed something. The grass around the angel's feet was overgrown, almost as if it were tying around the statue. Then it occurred to him: maybe this statue was just that—a statue. He looked it over, and noticed that the angel wasn't looking at him. It had its head turned around and was looking at something further ahead. The Doctor followed its gaze, and found another Angel looking right at it, but there was something peculiar about that one; it had no arms at all. They'd been taken clean off.

"Doctor, I found something!" Pepper called.

"I did too, come look at this!" He said; Pepper trotted over, noticing the Angel.

"So, we found two more of the Amazons? Or are these two of the other victims of Medusa?" She asked, looking at the Angel further forward.

"I don't know... Medusa seems to like girls, though... I've never seen a male Weeping Angel..."

Pepper shrugged, "Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it's not real... Take mermaids for example..."

"Oh, I've seen those..." The Doctor muttered, looking in the direction Pepper had come from. He headed in that direction, interested in the cottage suddenly, "What was it you found?"

"...wait, Doctor, you've seen mermaids?" Pepper looked up from the Angel, but the Doctor was already out of earshot, heading towards the cottage. "Doctor!"

* * *

The cottage looked even more cozy up close. Pepper found herself slowing down to look at the yard. It was very pretty, and if the normal sounds of the wilderness had been going on, she would have been at ease.

But it was way too quiet. Too suspicious.

"Bout time you got here," The Doctor said to her. He wasn't looking at her, but squatting next to the flower patch that circled the house. He felt the leaves and the petals, then he plucked a petal off and licked it. Pepper looked at him like he was crazy.

"That flower taste good?" she asked.

"No, it's disgusting, of course..."

"Then why the hell did you lick it?!"

The Doctor ignored that question, muttering to himself, "That's just... wax... The flowers are all wax! Well, normal flowers coated in wax..."

"Why would someone have flowers coated in wax?" Pepper wondered, feeling the petals of another flower.

"Maybe because they wanted to preserve them?" The Doctor tried to answer her. "I dunno. Let's ask their gardener." He got up and lead her to the door, knocking on it. Pepper gripped her bow, her hand ready to fly to an arrow if needed. No one answered the door. The Doctor knocked again; no answer.

"Well, looks like no one's home..." He said. "Maybe there's a way to—" He didn't get to finish. Pepper kicked the door in.

"You are far more violent than you look." He said, sighing and following her into the little cottage. Then, halfway through the door, he stopped to look at the lock.

"That's... not an Ancient Greek lock..." He said, putting on his glasses to look at it closer. "That's a very futuristic lock... This won't be invented for almost four thousand years..."

"What?" Pepper looked around the little place, trying to find anything else that might be suspicious. The structure of the place was very simplistic, but it was made completely made of concrete. It reminded her of the hurricane shelters some people have to make when that season comes around again. Then, something caught her eye.

There was a box, a small, colorful box with Chinese characters written all over it (At least, Pepper thought it was Chinese). But... wait, suddenly the Chinese turned into English. "Fire Dragon", it said, "Keep out of reach of children. Handle with care." She looked the box over, then picked it up and realized it was made of paper. There was a little green string that went through the side of the box.

"I recognize this..." Pepper said, "This is a firework! Daddy and the boys shoot these off every year in the park behind our house!" The Doctor hurried over, looking the box over. "That's weird, it looked like it was written in Chinese for a second..."

"Not Chinese, Cantonese... And it is written like that; the TARDIS just translates it for you. Like when you hear me talk, you're not hearing me speak English, it's just the TARDIS translating it in your head—well… I do speak English, but not as often as you'd think." While he was talking, he took out the Sonic Screwdriver and held up the firework box, pointing the sonic at it and pressing one of the buttons. "Oh... Ohhh, that's brilliant!" The Doctor said, grinning.

"What is?" Pepper asked, furrowing her eyebrows. The Doctor turned to her, still grinning giddily.

"It's been falling through time! This and that lock! They don't belong here!"

"Hell, yeah, a futuristic lock and a box of Cantonese fireworks don't belong in Ancient Greece!" Pepper snorted, "Where did they come from?"

"All periods of time... Oh this is amazing! The Weeping Angels don't just put people in time periods; they _displace_ things in time! And the things that are displaced have nowhere to go but back through that wormhole in time that the Angels create! So the objects end up wherever the angel is! _That_ is brilliant. Absolutely, positively brilliant." He turned to look at Pepper, but she had gone to look at the rest of the room somewhere in his explanation.

"Oi, were you even listening?" The Doctor asked, sounding slightly hurt that he was being clever and Pepper seemed to be ignoring him.

"O'course I was... D'you think there are other things from other periods of time here?"

Then, a new voice made Pepper jump, "Depends on who intrudes in my house, dearie." Both Pepper and the Doctor whirled around, and standing in the doorway to the next room, was whom they assumed to be Medusa.

She was incredibly tall. Six feet at least. She wore a tattered green Chiton, and Pepper was immediately jealous of the woman's figure. It happened every time she met someone she thought was prettier than her, she couldn't help it. However, the woman's face wasn't visible; she had a thick veil draped over her head that hung down to her shoulders. Her hair was tucked up into some sort of head wrap, so Pepper couldn't tell if she actually had snakes for hair or not.

"Who are you?" There was an odd sniffing sound, like a dog with a cold trying to sniff out a squirrel. "Terribly sorry, but my nose isn't what it used to be."

" 'allo, I'm the Doctor," And suddenly, there was that cheerful grin again, "This is Pepper. Are you the one the people are calling Medusa?"

"That makes me sound like a monster; Why don't you call me Aunty 'M'?" While her voice was trying to be sweet, it just seemed plain creepy, and Pepper backed towards the door, her grip on the bow tightening.

"It's a very nice place you've got here; where'd you get all of the out-of-time-and-place-items?" The Doctor asked, suddenly cheery as ever.

"My children bring them to me. Strange, aren't they?" Medusa said, running her hands over an entire table's worth of junk, "Some of these things are very strange. Others, I recognize... But most of it is strange to me..."

"Oh, but all this is brilliant! Little things that have been displaced in time... Things some people wouldn't know are missing!"

"Like when you lose a sock in the washing machine," Pepper put in.

"Sort of like that, not really," The Doctor wandered over to the junk pile, "But the question is, do you know what any of this is? Or is it all useless to you?"

"I know what they are; I can see through time as they come to me with their displaced things... things no one would miss..." Pepper couldn't see her eyes, but she felt them boring into her, so Pepper looked at the ground to make sure she was able to look away if that headdress came off.

"I wonder... If anyone would miss the two of you... If you went missing..."

"Oh, most definitely," The Doctor said quickly, "She's got an entire family back home; eleven brothers and sisters, not including her. And a mother and a father..."

"Too bad..." Medusa sighed, then she turned her head towards the Doctor, "But you... You... You are lonely..." Medusa extended her hand towards him, and he watched her warily. "Everyone has left you... your eyes are full of sorrow and loss... You have had many heartbreaks, haven't you?"

"That's not—"

"Your friends... loved ones... one, specifically... She left you not too long ago..."

"Don't—"

"That's why I coated my flowers in wax... So they will never leave me...but I can help you..." She crooned, placing her hand on his cheek, which seemed to hold him in place, unable to move at all, "No more sadness... No more pain... No more broken hearts... No more memories..."

Pepper drew an arrow, "You best get your hand off him, witch!" She strung it on the bowstring and aimed at Medusa, "The Amazons didn't try to recruit me for nothing!"

Medusa hissed. Her hold on the Doctor snapped, and he shook his head, "W-wot happened?!" Medusa rounded on Pepper.

"You sicken me, girl! You remind me why I only make female Angels! Men are better to keep around; easier to play with! But _girls_... They are selfish and cruel and deserve to be galactic fiends!" Before Pepper could respond, Medusa ripped the headdress off.

"PEPPER, CLOSE YOUR EYES!" The Doctor shouted. Without thinking, Pepper complied. There was more hissing, as Medusa failed to turn Pepper to stone. She heard something being thrown, and a screech from Medusa as she must've been hit by whatever the Doctor threw at her.

"I am trying to set her free! Now I will make a statue of _you_ as well!"

Pepper didn't hear the Doctor answer. Instead, she felt his hand slip into hers, and his voice in her ear, whispering, "Run!" She felt his hand tug hard on hers, and she stumbled after him, hoping not to run into anything. She felt the breeze on her skin as they made it outside, leaving Medusa screaming behind them, probably chasing them. Pepper opened her eyes when she deemed it was safe, and kept running beside the Doctor.

Finally, right when she thought her heart would burst, they stopped running. She collapsed against the tree, panting heavily. The Doctor leaned against it for a second, then he stood straight again and looked around to see if they were being followed.

Pepper nearly blacked out from lack of oxygen. Her head hurt. Her vision was fuzzy. And she couldn't help but feel sorry for the Angels, after seeing their Dragon Lady of a "mother". They were once normal girls, turned evil by a jealous rage-monster.

"Come on, Pepper, we need to go back to the TARDIS," The Doctor said, reaching down to help her up, "We need to find a way to keep her from hurting anyone else..."

"W-well..." Pepper cleared her throat, her voice dry, "We should try and find more information on her... How to bring her down, so to speak." The Doctor nodded.

"Allons-y, then!"

* * *

Their plan wasn't as solid as the Doctor had hoped. Or, at least, Pepper didn't think it was that solid.

According to the old myths of Medusa, the beast could only be killed by decapitation. But, there was also the thing in the myths about her having snakes for hair, and Pepper was sure that was false. Unless they were dead snakes; Pepper hadn't really seen Medusa's hair while they were in her house.

Pepper was sure there were other ways to fight her—her skin wasn't made of metal scales, so theoretically, it couldn't be indestructible. The fact that she was a creator of Weeping Angels helped in their planning process. Setting an Angel to stare at an Angel will freeze the two forever. Since neither of them wanted to take a chance on moving one of the angels set around the cottage, the Doctor went to get the next best thing.

"You sure that a tiny mirror will help?" Pepper said, plucking at her bowstring, bored.

"I'm prepared to believe it will... At least until you can replace it with the bigger one."

The Doctor's plan seemed a little too simple: Pepper was to wait somewhere outside the cottage, with a giant mirror on a stand sort of like an artist's easel folded up in a black bag. She'd wait for Medusa to come after her, and as soon as she showed, the Doctor would jump out and hold up the mirror to her face, allowing Pepper a window of opportunity to get the bigger mirror out and set it up. Then, if it worked, the Mother of All Weeping Angels would be stuck looking into a mirror for all eternity.

Pepper carried the big mirror back to the field just before the cottage, where the three of Medusa's victims they'd found first were frozen, all looking at each other. The Doctor followed behind with the smaller looking glass, planning to hide in the trees somewhere. Pepper stood in the middle of the field, careful not to come in between the Angels for fear of breaking their eye contact.

"Just stand there and keep your eyes closed," The Doctor said, "She _will_ show up..."

"How can you be so sure? Why would she come after me?" Pepper looked up at him, questioning.

"Well... It's a gamble, really..."

"Oh, that's comforting."

"Listen, you were the one that got away. You and I both. And if I know people like that; Psychopaths who torture for fun? She'll still be looking for the both of us."

"What if she's just waiting at the house? Waiting for us to come back?"

"If she were there, would we still be here?" The Doctor grinned at her, and Pepper smiled and rolled her eyes.

"If this doesn't work—"

"It will. I'm 99% sure. Well... 95%. Well... more like 80, but let's not think about logistics."

"You have a way of making me nervous that no one else has accomplished before, Doctor."

"Just... Keep your eyes closed alright? In case she takes us by surprise." Pepper complied with his advice, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath. "Alright. I'll be just over there. If anything goes wrong, I'll make sure she doesn't hurt you."

Pepper smiled. She never admitted this to the Doctor himself, but his way of making her nervous wasn't the only unmatched effect he had on her. He was always so confident, so sure of himself, it calmed her down when the chances of the plan going wrong, or the chances of imminent danger, or the chances of their lives ending prematurely were higher than 80%.

"Alright, but you'd better not be late." They shared a smile, then the Doctor, with a wink and a click of his tongue, ran off to hide. Pepper looked around warily. She had her bow and quiver with her, but they were set off to the side so she didn't look like an immediate threat.

Now all that was left to do was wait.

Every time Pepper heard something in the forest make a noise, she would snap her eyes shut. When she deemed it safe, she would reopen her eyes and wait for the noise she feared would never come: the sound of footsteps heralding the arrival of Medusa. It seemed like hours that she was waiting there, but she knew time always seemed to move like a sloth when you were expecting something.

Finally, she heard the soft crunch of feet on dry leaves. Her eyes trained on the floor, making sure she would be able to make sure it was Medusa and not one of the Amazons or a random hunter. After a couple of heart-pounding seconds, a pair of mismatched, out-of-time shoes came into her line of view.

"There you are~" That was strange. Her voice was scraggly and a lot less calming than her voice had been back in the cabin. Maybe she'd slipped into full-out battle mode or something, Pepper had no idea, nor any way of telling.

"Here I am." Pepper responded, slightly tenser than she'd been a second before.

"Where's that doctor friend of yours?" Medusa sneered, "Left you to die at my mercy?"

Pepper snorted, "He's not my escort."

Hissing laughter, Medusa began to circle Pepper, who kept an eye on her shoes at all times. "Indeed not. However, you and him seem to come in a package. Two lonely children, fallen out of time. Has he told you who he is yet, child?"

"...No, he hasn't..."

"Ah, haha, he _is_ clever, as he likes to say," Medusa chuckles, "Did he tell you how he leaves others behind? How he likes to run from things?"

"Oh, I know about the running."

"Do you know how he ran from death? How cowardly he is under that pretty face? He's not as great as you think him to be, Star-shine Girl..."

Pepper's eyebrows furrowed. That name... That was what the man in the asylum had called her. Why was that name following her? Two people had called her that now, and she was starting to get suspicious about it. However, the more she thought about it, the more her head hurt. She tried to focus more on the plan and getting out of there.

Her voice was closer this time, "You've seen his eyes, girl. What did you see in them? They are full of lies, deceit, war, and destruction. He is a dangerous man, Pepper Ophelia Houston, and the longer you stay by his side, the more you become like him. And the longer you travel with him, the harder you will take it when he leaves you behind. Has he told you about Rose Tyler? Martha Jones? Donna Noble? He left their lives in ruin, and he'll do the same to you."

"You can stop right there." Pepper turned her head up, closing her eyes. "I don't care about his past. I'm traveling with him right now, and that's all I care about. My Mama always told me to take life as it comes at you, one day at a time. If the Doctor were to drop me off tomorrow, I wouldn't think nothin' of it! I would move on with my life, finally win nationals, meet somebody nice, maybe even go to college! Head on to the Olympics in four years! I don't know about you, but I happen to like waking up in the morning not knowing what's going to go down later on in the day."

"What a cute little philosophy," Medusa sneered, "But he—"

"Listen," Pepper cut her off, "My point is, what you're talking about is really not important right now."

"Then what is important?"

"Defeating you and making sure you can never make any more Weeping Angels ever again."

Medusa laughed, "Challenge accepted!" On instinct, Pepper stumbled back towards the tree, and she felt someone—or something—rush past her, probably the Doctor. Medusa screeched, then Pepper heard the thudding of something on the grass. There was the sound of footsteps away from her position. Then, she heard the Doctor's voice in her ear.

"Pepper, whatever you do, don't look," He said, "Don't open your eyes, no matter what happens."

"Doctor, what's going on?!" Pepper said, squeezing her eyes shut tighter, "What happened?"

"Something went wrong! Promise me you'll stay put!" He didn't wait to hear her reply; she could hear his footsteps getting further and further away.

She promised him anyway.

* * *

A weapon. The Doctor hadn't counted on Medusa having a weapon.

To avoid being seen, he had been almost completely hidden behind a giant oak while Medusa was taunting Pepper, trying to wound her faith in him. Admittedly, he did smile a bit when Pepper wouldn't be swayed emotionally.

However, he deduced that Pepper must have closed her eyes, because Medusa cracked a smile at one point, and pulled out a weapon—it was either a short sword or a long knife—from behind her back. Neither of them had planned for Medusa to be armed, it seemed. Right when Medusa was about to run Pepper through while her defenses were down, the Doctor threw a rather large rock at her, just to get her attention. Pepper stumbled back before the rock hit either of them, and Medusa screeched as the rock unintentionally knocked the sword (knife?) out of her hand. Then, as Medusa turned and ran, the Doctor ran over to Pepper, trying to formulate a new plan in his head.

"Pepper, whatever you do, don't look," He said, close to her ear, "Don't open your eyes, no matter what happens."

Pepper, her eyes closed even tighter, turned her head, as if trying to see him through her eyelids. He backed up immediately, grabbing Pepper's bow and quiver just in case he needed it.

"Doctor, what's going on?!" Pepper cried, frantic. "What happened?"

"Something went wrong!" He decided that he'd tell her exactly what happened as soon as they were both safe and sound in the TARDIS, "Promise me you'll stay safe!" Whatever this new plan was going to be, he couldn't involve Pepper any further in this. Medusa was after them for some reason, which was what he was testing when he set up the original plan: to see if Medusa would continue to pursue the both of them. If she hadn't been after either Pepper or himself for more than just to make them into statues, she would have cut her losses and let them go when they ran out of the cottage.

But she had been looking for them. Which meant she knew they both didn't belong there. Which meant she knew who they really were.

The Doctor continued to run after Medusa, trying to formulate a new plan. He needed to be able to get her to look at the mirror, without having to look at her directly. But he couldn't; he would need two mirrors for that, and he only had the one small one.

Now he was regretting leaving Pepper behind.

However, since it was too late to go back, he pushed on.

He stopped as he heard that scraggly voice again.

"It's so sad that I can only make Weeping Angels out of women." He turned, looking in the mirror at the woman behind him.

She was like nothing he'd ever seen. It wasn't surprising, since new things were being born in the universe every day, and he had yet to actually see it all, but he hadn't seen anything like Medusa's face before. Half of it was made of stone, like her nose and her jaw and the top of her forehead and hairline. The roots of her hair were stone. Her hair was jet back and fell in waves down her back. It might have been silky at one point, but that had to have been a long time ago. Her eyes were cold, stone gray, her pupils dilated beyond reason. The skin and stone blended together seamlessly, as if the stone were natural. Scales like those found on a copperhead snake coated her neck, but from her shoulders down, she looked completely human.

The longer he looked at her, the more he felt a strange pressure on his brain, like his brain had swelled and was pushing against the inside of his skull. His eyebrows furrowed; he never got headaches, so what could that be?

"Your mind is more... unprotected than I thought it would be, a knowledgable man like yourself."

"Ahh, mind reading... Kind of boring, isn't it? You know what someone's going to say before they say it, 'What kind of shirt do you want? Oh, wait, never mind, you want blue, I thought so,' makes for very one-sided conversations. Then people think you're a nutter because you end up talking to yourself because no one wants to talk to you, because you already know what they're going to say."

"You really like to talk," Medusa sneered, "And I can see why, inside your mind. You're trying to find out the best way to beat me, so you're stalling, Doctor. Stalling your own doom."

"Yeah, well... gotta try for something, eh?"

"Why bother? Ah, but that's just it. You just want to live to live. To go places just to say you've been. All those people you meet, all those hearts you touch, the ones you leave behind, is it really worth the pain of knowing you'll just end up alone after all this?"

The Doctor was quiet.

"Ah, you know pain well, don't you? Death and pain and destruction are your shadows, aren't they? You never can get away from them, so don't you just want to give up sometimes? Just finally come to terms with everything you've done and lives you left in ruin, and accept death? I hear in your mind that you say all the time that 'everything has it's time, and everything dies'; don't you think that your time has come? That there's really no more for you to do?"

The dull pain was pounding now, inside his head, and was creeping down to his eyes. Suddenly, he had flashbacks of his past lives, and the places he'd been and the people he met. The people that stayed with him, the people he left behind, and the lives he'd changed, sometimes for the worst. He thought about what Sarah Jane had told him, what seemed like a century ago now.

_"You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next; or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas and then you just dropped me back on earth. How could anything compare to that?"_

Something clenched at his hearts, as he got more and more lost in memories.

"Think about all of them: Sarah Jane Smith, Rose and Jacqueline Tyler, Mickey Smith, Martha Jones and her family, Donna Noble and her grandfather, even those whom you haven't met yet. Their lives would have been so much better if they had never bothered to step inside your TARDIS."

Suddenly, his vocal chords were paralyzed. It was getting harder to breathe, and he felt tears welling up in his eyes from all the emotions resurfacing as Medusa continued to speak, her power creeping deeper into his mind, deeper into his past.

"Think about Rose: she would still be in the universe she was born in, with her mother and her boyfriend the way it should have been. And Martha, she almost put the world at risk of blowing up because you couldn't stay away from your precious Earth. And each and every Christmas, Londoners all over are terrified that something bad might happen. Don't you think it's time to give everyone an easy break and just vanish?"

"Not on your life."

Everything happened so fast. One second, the Doctor felt like he was about to drown in his own memories, and the next, the bittersweet images all shattered like glass with the piercing sound of an inhuman screech. He blinked his eyes open (when had he closed them?) and took in the scene lain before him.

Pepper was standing over Medusa's writhing, headless body, a silver sword dripping green goop in her right hand. The monster's head had rolled itself up in her hair, and was off to the Doctor's left. The body stopped twitching, and then started to turn to stone. Pepper sliced at it, and the whole thing turned to dust. Arriving behind Pepper were two of the Amazons, Demetria and Helena, Demetria holding the black bag carrying the larger mirror.

"Wow, it actually worked!" Pepper said, handing the sword to Helena, "Thanks for the tip."

Helena looked completely unaffected by the monster goo on her sword, and cleaned it on a nearby patch of grass, "We heard shouting from our patrol and came to help. When we found Pepper alone, she gave us a vague description of what had happen. Thank the gods Demetria is such a good tracker."

Pepper stepped over the pile of dust that used to be Medusa, wrapping her arms around the Doctor. Shaking himself out of his stunned state, he looked down at her, gently returning the hug.

"You alright?" Pepper asked softly.

"I'm fine, why?" The Doctor asked, his good old smile returning.

"You were crying." Pepper grabbed her things and waved to the Amazons. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah, it's a long story. Involves a lot of people. Really sad. You wouldn't like it."

"On the contrary. I have time, and I love people and sad stories."

"You sure? It's just my past..."

"Fire away."

"Well... To start off, I come from a planet called Gallifrey. A long time ago, my people, the Time Lords, were a very powerful race..."

And they walked off like that, the Doctor and the Archer, him telling her of his adventures, and her listening, as well as she could. As I've told you before, Pepper was really great at her three things and mostly just those three things, but if it was extended to the things she was merely good at, she was also good at listening, sassing back, and, on occasion, singing a lullaby.

But as the Doctor went on about his home and how it was destroyed, Pepper was more inclined to listen to him than she ever had been with anything else in her life. Maybe it was the way his eyes lit up when he explained his adventures, and the people he met and how they sometimes left him.

The way he talked about all of them, the sparkle in his eyes when he explained the adventures, Pepper couldn't help but feel that they were still with him, no matter who died and who was still alive and who was in some other world. Their legacies lived on in the Doctor's memories of them, and Pepper almost felt honored, because long after she was gone—and she had no doubt that that day would come—she liked to think that he might talk about her that way.

* * *

**NEXT TIME**

"Welcome to New Earth!"

"So this is like... New New York?"

"Well... more like New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York."

"What happened here?! This place had changed for the better the last time I came here!"

"That was twenty years ago, and the entire New New York Senate was dead! Someone needed to rule!"

"_Five_ armies, all preparing for a civil war!"

"Not if we can help it! Allons-y!"

* * *

FINALLY I FINISHED IT I'M SO SORRY I'M LATE GAAAAAHHHHHHH ene okay, I'm good now. Review, please! I'll work as hard as I can over winter break to get the next chapter up in January!


	6. Chapter 4, New Again

**Ugghhhh this has taken so long to get up, I'm sorry! QnQ**

* * *

Have you ever seen a war movie? As in not a documentary, with real actors and sometimes color, compared to tired old clips taken from old fashioned cameras when those wars were actually going on. Any war movie, whether it be Captain America (which Pepper counted as a war movie) or Saving Private Ryan (which I'd never seen but my brothers said was good). I think the black and white takes away the feeling that these events actually happened. It makes them look unrealistic; like the stories inside happened in a different world and not our own.

But when the world bursts in color in front of your eyes, there is a certain connection that's made between the movie and the moviegoers. When the past is laid before you in colors and symbols and words, it's rather hard not to feel patriotic, and just a little depressed. Or, at least, that's how I felt whenever I watched war movies.

The Doctor had seen his own share of wars, and the incredible loss that came with them. Pepper only mentioned the war he fought in, the Time War, once or twice. But this one adventure they went on had a certain view on war almost no one ever sees in these kinds of movies, _both sides of the conflict._ In non-documentary movies that were set during a particularly significant war, most of the time, you only see a story from the one side, never from both.

This story begins at our house in New Orleans. It was laundry day, and Pepper had forced the Doctor to bring his clothes in from the TARDIS so she could wash them.

Among all their adventures, Pepper visited home very often. It would sometimes be days before we saw her again, but her visits were never more than a week apart. However, sometimes, we all feared- Mama, Daddy, all of my siblings and I- that she was aging more than what we saw. Sometimes, she came home crying, with more fear and age in her eyes than we could ever know.

This time, however, she was the Pepsi we all knew and loved: chipper, bright, and full of sass.

"Violet, don't play in the dirty clothes!" I heard her shout from the laundry room, "Y'all get outta here! Get!" A few of my siblings ran out of the laundry room, screaming. Michael, who was two years younger than me, had to dodge them as he went into the laundry room.

"Pepper, the Doctor's hogging Guitar Hero again..."

Pepper sighed, "Really?" She led the way upstairs into the game room, where our brothers (and a few off my sisters) were watching the alien rock out to ACDC on the Wii, dancing around in a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt borrowed from our oldest brother, Matthew's college cast-offs. He had a pair of maroon John Lennon glasses crooked on his face, and a black tie tightened around his noggin.

"CAUSE I'M BACK- Pepper!" He cried in delight as he jumped around, going crazy on the guitar controller, "HA HA! This game is brilliant! AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!" He landed on his knees as he finished up the song, breathily imitating the crowd screaming in the game.

Pepper laughed, crossing her arms, "C'mon, Angus Young. We've got some time traveling to do."

"Aw, alright," The Doctor grinned, taking the guitar controller off and handing it to Michael.

Laundry done and bag re-packed, Pepper bid her goodbyes to Mama and the rest of us half an hour later. The Doctor was back in his suit, his tie and glasses back in the right place: his closet.

"Nice finally meeting you, Mrs. Houston," he said to Mama. Mama gave him her best twisted smile.

"You just bring her back to visit more, you hear?" He gave her a wink and a two-finger salute, and Pepper gave her one last kiss on the cheek, and they were off again.

As soon as Pepper swung the doors of the TARDIS closed, the Doctor was at the console.

"I think it's high time I make another visit to a little place called New New York." He grinned at Pepper, "What do you say, eh?"

"New New York?" Pepper asked, standing next to him.

"In the year Five Billion, the sun expands, roasting the Earth, BUT the human race—well, whatever evolved from it has already moved on to a new planet they call New Earth."

"Creative."

"Precisely. The last time I was in New New York, the people were almost entirely stuck in gridlock beneath the city, at the mercy of some nasty bottom feeders. With the help of the Face of Boe, we saved them, but we were too late to save the Senate..."

"What happened to them?"

"Drug overdose."

Pepper winced, "So then we're going back there because...?"

"I'd like to see how setting up a new government turned out. Now, setting up a new government can take a little while, so I'm going to go to about the year... Oh, say... Five-billion-seventy-five?"

"Oh no, not the seventies!" Pepper joked, "Let's do it, Angus!"

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Nope!"

The Doctor laughed, "Allons-y!" He pulled the lever to start the TARDIS up, and they shot off through time and space, rocking with the ship. As it was landing, Pepper closed her eyes and locked the materialization sounds into her memory. She still hears them today, in her dreams.

Outside, the sky was bright blue, perhaps a little more of a rich blue than on the first earth. They were on what Pepper guessed was a sidewalk, in a nice, clean part of the city. The 'sidewalk' was just like any other sidewalk, except it was much wider, and there w no street attached to it. There was just open air where the road should've been. The 'cars' honking and _vroom_ing and dashing around like normal New Yorker cars (or 'Old New York', she guessed) didn't have any wheels. Instead, they flew around like wingless aircraft, like cars of the future were always imagined to do. Pepper looked up at the sky scrapers for a while, amazed.

"Pepper Houston, welcome to New New York." The Doctor grinned, sticking his hands into his pockets. "Humans have been spreading out for millions of years now, and some time ago, not sure when—think I was drunk—they found this place! Same size as earth, same sort of atmosphere, voila! New Earth."

Pepper grinned, and was about to say something else when someone ran into her.

"Oh, I'm—!" They both started to say. Looking up, their eyes locked.

He was a young man, with light blonde hair, gelled back against his head, save for two antennae-like strands of hair suspended over his forehead. His eyes were a dark indigo color, somewhere between blue and purple.

"Sorry..." Pepper continued, smiling at the tall young man.

"Nah, that was my fault," He said, looking at both of the Time Travelers, "I wasn't looking where I was going... I space out a lot, my mother says I have to get my head out of the clouds."

"Ah, but you've such a better view of the world from the clouds," The Doctor grinned, sticking his hands into his pockets.

The young man laughed, "Finally! Someone who believes me."

"Well, tha's me, I'm a believer."

"He's also a rocker." Pepper teased.

"Aw, come on!" He pouted at her jokingly, but she was too busy laughing.

"Inside joke?" The young man smiled, slightly confused.

"Yeah, inside joke. I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"I'm Markus Hue," The young man smiled, shaking the Doctor's hand, then Pepper's, "And you, Miss?"

"Pepper." She smiled and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you. Listen, I'd love to stay and chat, but my mother is hosting a party in our penthouse, and it's dangerous to be outside this close to the District Line."

"A party! I love parties," The Doctor grinned, "Mind if we tag along?"

Markus smiled and shook his head, "Not at all; come with me, quickly. We'll take the Tube."

"I'll follow you, just gotta move my ship. Pepper, come on," The Doctor said, walking back towards the blue box. Pepper nodded and turned to follow him, but Markus held her back.

"One moment," He said, taking out a card and handing it to her. It had Markus's name and address printed on it, and a silver sticker underneath the writing, with a fingerprint stamped on it, "This will help you at the door, just tell them you're with me and have them scan the fingerprint."

Pepper nodded, smiling, and followed the Doctor, "Sure! See you there."

* * *

The Doctor checked his watch, then sighed, sticking his hands into his pockets. Pepper was going to make them late. It had taken him all of five minutes to throw on a tux and a pair of black converse, fix his hair, and make sure he was at least presentable. However, Pepper was taking much longer. It had almost been an hour since they'd arrived outside the fancy complex that was on the card, and the brown-haired Archer had not been seen yet.

"Pepper!" The Doctor called back into the TARDIS (for what seemed like the hundredth time), "We'll be late!"

"If you wouldn't _rush_ me, Lord Almighty!" Finally, she stepped into the console room, and the Doctor was about to tell her to watch her mouth again, but as he turned around, his tongue tied itself in a knot.

She must have brought her own dress, because it wasn't one he recognized. It had a halter top, the straps beaded in silver. It was a simple green satin, and the front touched the floor, while the back was a train that drug along behind her. She'd washed and curled the front of her hair, and tied the back into a fishtail braid that hung over her shoulder. The blue in her hair had washed out, leaving bleached tips behind. Her make-up was light, but done very well. It seemed like her eyes were surrounded by green mist, and they popped right out.

She arched an eyebrow at him, "You okay?"

At first, he mumbled something like "beautiful", then he cleared his throat and spoke up, "Fine, I'm fine. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." She replied, cocking a little half-smile. The Doctor grinned and held out his arm for her, and she stepped down to take it, following him out.

When they entered the elegant building, it was hard for Pepper to not rubber neck and take a long look at the decor and breathtaking architecture. She managed a slow glance around before they made it to the front desk.

" 'Allo!" The Doctor grinned at the man, flashing the card Markus had given them, "We were invited to a party in the... penthouse, I believe he said? Right?" Pepper nodded, then the man at the desk took out a small device and scanned the card.

"Ah, the Hue party. Proceed." He pressed a green button on the desk, and an elevator opened up on the wall to the left.

"Thank you very much." The Doctor smiled at him, then led Pepper into the elevator, where she pressed the button that said 'penthouse'. They said nothing as the elevator doors closed, but glanced at each other with big grins on their faces.

"First class party within two hours of being here?" Pepper nearly squealed.

"What, you've never been to a fancy party before?"

Snorting, Pepper shook her head, "Not unless you count Mardi Gras."

The Doctor laughed, "I don't think that quite qualifies." Pepper chuckled to herself as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

The entire floor was drowning in elegant decorations and people in tuxedoes and evening gowns. Pepper felt like she'd stepped back in time instead of forward. It looked almost royal, even just standing there looking at everything. The two of them stepped into the party, and were almost immediately greeted by Markus, who had an older woman on his arm that looked almost like him.

"You made it!" He grinned, taking Pepper's hand and kissing it.

"Well, it would have been rude if we hadn't, wouldn't it?" The Doctor grinned, and Markus laughed.

"I guess it would be, yeah," Markus said, "Oh, mother, these are my guests for the evening, Pepper Houston and the Doctor."

"A man of medicine?" Mrs. Hue asked, glancing at Pepper with a certain aloof congratulation in her tone of voice, "Quite fitting for such a fine young lady."

"Oh, no no no!" They both stuttered at the same time, breaking away from each other. "No, we're not—"

"I'm not with him, we're just friends," Pepper chuckled, smiling.

"Too bad. I need a glass of champagne. Lovely to meet you both." The old woman seemed very detached, disinterested, even, as she drifted off to find a glass.

Pepper looked around and gasped as she saw the string quartet that was playing softly in the corner. The violinist didn't look like he was playing the violin at all. The frame of the instrument curled and curved more like a modern art sculpture than a violin. Along the neck was an arrangement of buttons which, if pressed, would play different chords effortlessly.

"Oh my God, look at that violin!" She picked up her dress and hurried over to look. "Wow, that's so... so...!"

"Futuristic?" The Doctor chuckled, sticking his hands into his pockets.

After playing for a bit, the band took a break and the violinist let Pepper try it out to see how it worked. She was very impressed by how light it was, and how easy to play it was. She played a bit of a song she knew, and then she gave it back. After thanking the player for letting her try it, she began to ask questions about the music style they were playing.

"This is a great party, really," The Doctor remarked to Markus as the shorter took a glass of champagne from a waiter, "What's it for?"

"My grandfather," Markus replied, pointing out a tall man with a head of thin white hair, who was dressed in a formal, decorated military uniform, "He's the Mayor of New New York. He just came home from New Arcadia; he helped solve a land dispute over there."

"Call me daft, but it doesn't seem like you're too happy to see him home." the Doctor said.

Markus looked around nervously, then he leaned in and kept his voice low, "I shouldn't be saying anything, but his term as Mayor has turned into a sort of regime. We're in the room with the last of the wealth in the city; he sits in a banquet while the people of Lower Manhattan and Harlem starve."

"But... where's he get the money from? He's only mayor."

"He only uses the title 'Mayor' as a tribute to the Ancient Custom of the original New York... He brought New New York out of the anarchy and chaos that happened after the Senate died."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, "I remember that... that was years ago, though... That was decades; he's been in office that long?"

Markus nodded, "And that's why there's such unrest in the people of New New York... Even some of the Upper Class think so, but you didn't hear it from me." The Doctor nodded and excused himself as he saw Pepper walking over to them; he met her halfway.

"Doctor, the violinist just told me—"

"That the people are upset? I know, Markus just told me. I guess the seventies weren't that bad a choice, eh?" He grinned at her. She shrugged, grinning back.

"An impending Civil War is a lot more exciting than disco music and bell-bottoms."

"...wait, impending? I thought it was just unrest." The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed, and his smile disappeared. Pepper's smile followed, and she looked confused.

"Yeah? He said that there's a Resistance and they're moving out either tonight or tomorrow, I didn't hear much of that part," She explained. Suddenly, there was the sound of glass shattering, and someone screamed as the General crumpled to the floor, blood seeping through his shirt.

"Doctor—!" In a heartbeat, the two of them were running over to the fallen veteran, the Doctor having whipped a stethoscope seemingly out of nowhere.

"Let me through, I'm a Doctor!" He shouted, pushing a few people aside as he knelt to feel the man's heart. Markus appeared behind Pepper, his face distorted with confusion and distress. After a quick examination, the Doctor stood.

"We need to get him to the hospital—!" Mrs. Hue sounded just about as concerned as she could possibly get.

"Mrs. Hue, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, but the General is gone..." Markus set his hands on his mother's shoulders, and she fell into him, crying daintily into her hands. The room was quiet in respect for the passing of the mayor.

During the moment of silence, something else shot through the broken window. Pepper stepped forward and picked up the thin metal rod.

"It's... it's an arrow..." She muttered, looking it over, "It's got a note on it..." she pulled the slip of paper off the shaft of the arrow and read off of it: "It says 'Welcome home, General. _Vive l'rennaisance_'..."

The entire room went into an uproar.

"Is it signed?!"

"Who would do such a thing?!"

"We know who did it; it was the Lower Manhattanites!"

"Check it for fingerprints!"

Before anyone could try and calm the room down, the rest of the windows crashed open, and people dressed in black swung into the room, sleek silver guns strung across their backs. Pepper flinched away from the shattered glass, and the Doctor grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the stairs.

"Come on! Markus, you too!" He hissed. Markus, unaffected by the confusion and terror of the room around him, noticed them run out, and followed. Pepper had to yank off her shoes before they started descending, lest she break her ankle trying to keep up with the Doctor.

"Goddamn _shoes!_"

"Why'd you wear them?!"

"Because I didn't think we would be ambushed by rebels!"

Once the Doctor judged they'd made it down enough floors, they burst from the stairwell into the hallway. Markus was wheezing; suits were not that well for running in. Pepper wasn't all so bad; she had gotten used to the running thing by now. The Doctor paced back and forth, muttering things to himself, while Pepper sat on the floor next to Markus.

"Why…? No, but… And the… couldn't have…"

"What're you muttering about over there, Angus?"

Before the Doctor could answer, three more agents in black costumes burst from the stairs. Pepper jumped up, dragging Markus with her, and the Doctor stepped out in front of them.

"Hold on, hold on, before you shoot us!" He said, putting his hands up, "And, by all means, do, just let me finish talking… Why not put the guns down and we'll have a little chat, eh?" The rebels looked at each other, then, the smallest one, the one standing in the middle, stepped forward while the others aimed their guns.

"We will do no such thing." Pepper's eyes widened at the strange, warped voice. It was the same voice from the Cyber ship when she first met the Doctor. She looked at him, and he gave her the same shocked look she was giving him.

"You will stay here. Mr. Hue, our leader wishes to speak with you. If you will come with me." It wasn't a question.

"I will not!" Markus shouted defiantly at them.

"Markus, don't be stupid; do as they say." Pepper hissed at him.

"Yeah, actually, I would like to talk to your leader too," the Doctor said, his hands still in the air, "Take us to your leader." Pepper snorted, trying to hide a laugh.

The smallest person dressed in black paused before turning to the other two. "Take them all to the leader. I will stay here." The two taller soldiers nodded, and ushered the three down the hall and into the elevator. Pepper looked back at the other rebel, but the figure was gone, and she tried not to start flipping out. Who disappears like that? Was it a ghost? Or an alien of the type? What was it doing with a rebel force in the year five-billion-seventy-five?

The trip down to the lobby was a tense and quiet one. Pepper stared at the silver plating on the button console the whole time, trying to figure out why that voice was following them. _Was_ it following them? Or was it a coincidence? She had no way of knowing.

When the elevator opened again, they were in the lobby, which had been completely taken over by the rebel force. There were guards dressed in black at every exit, and a group of staff for the building were huddled in a corner, their hands on their head. Everyone was standing up, save for one woman who wasn't in full mask and bulletproof armor. She had on a black jumpsuit and held a gun, and that was it. She looked like she would have been of African American descent, but Pepper wasn't sure that that was how they classified people on New Earth. She had long, sleek black hair tied up in a high ponytail, and was lounging about like she owned the place.

Markus looked the most shocked to see her. "Evangelia?!" The woman looked up and stood quickly, just as shocked to see him as he was to see her. Then, her expression became cold again, and she looked at him with disdain.

"Markus. It's Ebony now, by the way. What are you doing here?" She glared at the two guards and added, "Who told you to bring them here?"

"One of your subordinates, ma'am," One of the guards answered diligently, "The one with the voice modulator."

"Voice modulator?! No one in this force uses a voice modulator!"

The soldiers looked at each other stupidly. Ebony sighed and waved them off, "Go do something useful. And don't follow orders unless they're directly from me!"

While this was going on, Pepper turned to the Doctor to whisper, "She didn't ask to see Markus? I thought that person with the weird voice modulator said she asked for him—"

"I don't know," the Doctor said, "But I recognize that voice, don't you?"

"I do. Think it's a coincidence?"

"Ah, I don't believe in coincidence."

"You two!" Ebony glared at the two of them, "Stop talking. Who are you? You don't register in my Red List."

"I'm the Doctor, this is Pepper, we're not from—"

"The Doctor?" Ebony interrupted, sounding very surprised, "The Doctor? The same Doctor that led the uprising at the Hospital, and freed the people stuck in the Motorway?"

The Doctor shrugged, "Well—"

Ebony grinned and shook his hand, "It is such a pleasure to meet you! My gosh, you're one of the heroes we based our resistence on!"

"Nah, I wouldn't say _hero_…"

"We would," Ebony said, grinning at him, and going to shake Pepper's hand too, "And we welcome any companion the Doctor has. Miss…?"

"Houston. Pepper Houston."

"Tell me something, Ebony," the Doctor said, sticking his hands in his pockets, "if you all revere me so much, then why are you attacking and killing the government of New New York? I don't condone violence at all."

Ebony frowned, "It is all a just cause and in mere self-defense, Doctor. If you knew the context in which this revolution was occuring, you would not be protesting. Our people walk the streets in fear of being arrested for no reason. We are afraid to come out of our homes because we are targeted by people from every other district in New New York. We are all sick and tired of having our rights taken away from us because we are not well-off!"

"That doesn't mean that violence is the answer," the Doctor said, his voice calm, "If you want the violence to stop, you have to stop it first. Then sit down and try to talk it out. Set up a new government; one that all of you can agree on."

A change struck in Ebony, and her eyes softened a bit, "I guess… That does seem easier, doesn't it…" Then, something weird happened. Ebony's pupil's seemed to dilate, and that soft look in her eyes disappeared, replaced by cold blackness. "But everything is easier said than done. War is the only answer."

"Ebony, think this through—"

"You cannot give me orders, Time Lord!" Her voice seemed to have doubled, as if someone was speaking with her at the same time. The Doctor frowned.

"This is bad, Ebony, you can't—"

"SILENCE!" the tall woman roared, whirling and landing a hard, powerful kick to the Doctor's stomach, sending him flying backward.

"Doctor!" Pepper cried, rushing after him. He tried to get back up, coughing, and she grabbed his arm to help him up.

"What the hell, bitch?!" She shouted, glaring at Ebony, "What's with you?!"

"Pepper, don't—" the Doctor broke off into coughs, still trying to regain his breath.

"You will not stop my victory!" Ebony snarled, her voice still doubled up. She thrust her hand out to her soldiers, who circled Pepper, the Doctor, and now Markus, who had joined them protectively. Pepper desperately wished she had her bow. Not to actually shoot anything, but just as a security blanket, sort of. Ebony stepped forward, the soldiers closing ranks behind her. Markus stood between her and his new friends, curling his hands into fists. He had no idea what he could have done against their vaporizer guns, but he had no choice but to try.

Second after anxious second, the trio waited for something to happen. Finally, Ebony gave the order to detain them, and each of them were dragged off to one of the offices behind the reception desk. There were no windows, just a glass wall and door, so the guards could see everything they were doing. Markus sat on the floor, worrying.

"My mother's probably dead by now… And all of her friends…"

"Thank you, sunshine," Pepper said, leaning against the back wall, "Why don't you keep shining your gorgeous golden rays upon us and tell us they're gonna pop a cap in our asses?"

"Pepper, that's enough," The Doctor said as he paced back and forth across the room, "Markus, do you know Ebony?"

"She was, as I knew her, Evangelia…" Markus said sadly, sighing like a lovestruck poet, "We grew up together, and we were to be married almost eight years ago, before her company went bankrupt and her father killed himself and her mother… I loved her more than anything in the whole world…"

"Alright, Shakesphere…" Pepper rolled her eyes.

"Nah, he sounds more like Robert Frost," the Doctor corrected her, "Shakesphere was much more eccentric… anyway, Markus, keep going, sorry."

"Well… She was thrust into poverty, and… from what I figure, she sympathized with the poor Lower Manhattan people that weren't being treated right."

"Makes a lot of sense, no one really knows the plight of a poor man until they've walked in his shoes—well… I guess you're an exception, eh, Markus?"

Markus shrugged, "I have a lot of friends who work across The District Line, and they tell me gossip from there… Or some gossip, anyway."

"But what happened with Ebony back there?" Pepper wondered, "Her eyes turned black and red, and she started acting like the Queen of Sheba…"

"I don't—Wait, you saw a red ring?" The Doctor turned his attention to Pepper, who knit her eyebrows together.

"You didn't see it? Her pupils grew huge and her irises turned blood red…"

"But that's… that's not—OH! No! YES! Pepper!" The Doctor took her shoulders, grinning, "You are brilliant!"

"I… I am? But what did I do?"

"You just solved our problem! This doesn't have to end in violence, and if I'm clever… And very lucky…" He quickly took out his sonic screwdriver and unlocked the door, which made the two guards snap their heads around and point guns at them. Before they could shoot, the Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the ceiling and pushed another button. Nothing seemed to happen, but whatever he was doing was affecting the guards. They grabbed at their ears, as if someone was blasting something in their ears. Then, they both collapsed, blue goop leaking from their ears.

"What the—what did you do, melt their brains?!" Pepper shouted, shocked.

"Don't be stupid; if I had melted their brains, they'd be oozing gray slime, not blue…" He bent down to examine them, opening their eyes and checking out their oozing ears.

"Then… what did you do?" Markus asked.

The Doctor didn't answer. Instead, he dug into the blue goop coming out of the guards' ears, pulling out two lumps that looked like little brown slugs. "AHA! Here we are. Pepper, Markus, I give you, the Brekari."

"The Brekari? They look like tree slugs…"

"They almost are," the Doctor said, "except, instead of feeding on the bark of trees, these are parasitic aliens that feed on fear and anger."

"Literally, fear and anger?" Markus asked, looking at the little slugs.

"Yes, literally, fear and anger," The Doctor grinned, holding them, "look how cute they are!"

"Doctor, aren't they dangerous?"

"No, not at all!" He said, holding them up for her to see, "Like I said, they really are like slugs, and they'll die in a few hours if they stay outside their heads." He nodded to the soldiers, whom were being checked out by Pepper. "They should be fine, with the bugs out of their heads…"

One of the men groaned, and Pepper pulled off his mask to make sure he was okay. "Are you alright, can you hear me?"

His eyes focused on her, and he blinked, confused, "Where am I? How did I get here?"

"If you can help us, I'm sure we can get you answers to those questions," Pepper said, helping him sit up.

The man looked over to the other one, who was still on the floor, "Oh my God! Is he alright?! Eames! Eames!" He shook the other's (apparently, Eames's) shoulder.

Eames groaned, "Yuki? Is that you? Ugh, who put jelly in my ear?"

"Dear God, you're alive!" 'Yuki' cried, collapsing on Eames's chest. "I was so worried!"

"Yeah, I'm fine, love," Eames said, patting the smaller man's back.

"Guys, I hate to break up the love fest," Pepper interjected, "But we have a possessed revolutionary army that we need to rid of these war slugs!"

"W-what?" Yuki let Eames get up, looking confused at Pepper.

"Tell me, you two," the Doctor said, holding up the Brekari, "where did these come from? Where did you get them?"

"Sweet _Jesus_, what are those things?" Eames shouted, backing up from the sploogy aliens.

"They're called Brekari, they're harmless when they're on their own, but their very prescence builds the most dangerous weapon in the universe." The Doctor tapped his own head (with a finger that wasn't covered in slime), "An idea. One little idea, that grows and grows until it becomes a part of you, an idea that you need to stand up and attack. Start a war; court chaos. And then, they feast on that anger, that hatred that's born from that idea. They feast until you're an empty shell, capable of nothing but hatred. They're the most dangerous parasitic race in the universe."

"Then we need to squash some slugs," Pepper declared, hands on hips.

"Actually, we won't need to get our hands dirty at all," the Doctor said, holding up his sonic screwdriver, "If I can figure out a way to amplify the signal I sent out that got the slugs out of…" He paused, gesturing to the two soldiers.

"I'm Yuki, he's Eames," Yuki said, nodding.

"Thank you, Yuki and Eames's ears. The Brekari's hearing is on a different level than ours is. What I did was make a noise that was too high-pitched for us to hear."

"Like a mosquito ringtone?" Pepper asked.

"Exactly like a—" The Doctor looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows, "Mosquito ringtone? I was gonna say 'dog whistle'…"

Pepper shrugged, "We have a big property with lots of cicadas, so dog whistles don't work as well. We always used this big speaker hooked up to an old MP3 player with a mosquito ringtone…"

"Well, we need to find a way to—…" The Doctor stopped, mid sentence, then looked at her, a small spark in his eyes, "…say that again?"

Confused, Pepper repeated herself, "My family, instead of using a dog whistle, we used a big speaker and an MP3…"

"OH!" The Doctor shouted, grinning, "That's perfect! Well, it's not exactly how we're going to do it, but it's the same basic principle!"

"What is?" Markus asked.

"These people—this… wanna-be army—"

"Hey, watch it." Eames warned.

"They're all taken over by these little slugs. And I'm sure that Evangelia is clever and decided not to bring her army into one place, so they're spread all over the city, right?"

"Yeah, she has back-up teams waiting on her," Yuki nodded.

"So, if we were to try and hold the Sonic up to each and every one of that army, it wouldn't work because they would capture us before we could get the slugs out. So how do we take a high-pitched noise like that and spread it across the whole city?"

"A speaker?" Pepper guessed.

"Brilliant! A speaker. Or, in this case, _every_ speaker in the entire city. Markus! Where's the nearest radio tower?"

"Radio tower?" Markus looked confused. "There isn't one."

The Doctor didn't look too phased, "Cell phone tower then? Anything we can use!"

"Well… there is the public internet modem transmitter, which controlls the internet of the entire city of New New York…"

"Brilliant! Alright, so I've got to get to that tower as fast as possible. Pepper, Eames and Yuki, you three go stall. Prevent anyone from killing or starting any fights. Pepper, give me your mobile phone."

"My phone? What for?" She handed it over, and he pointed his screwdriver at it, messing with it a bit.

"So we can communicate. I set the TARDIS phone as speed dial four."

"Wait, you have a phone?"

"Long story. Markus, you're with me! I need to get back to the TARDIS and grab a few things before we head to the transmitter. Everyone clear on the plan?"

"I think so."

"…not really."

"Maybe…?"

"Nope."

"Well, just a normal day then. Allons-y!"

* * *

Pepper regretted ever calling BS on those cheesy secret agent movies where they crawl through the air ducts of the enemy's headquarters. She sighed and yanked herself up another couple feet, hoping to find a way up to the second floor.

She and Eames and Yuki had decided to divide and conquer. They stayed down in the lobby to try and ease some of the tension down there, while she was to escape and somehow make it up to the penthouse. Her plan was very vague: she intended to get past the army on the first floor and make it up to the second, then catch an elevator (or at least take the stairs) up to the penthouse. So far, getting to the second floor was proving to be complicated.

"Next time, we're going to the nineteen eighties!" She hissed as she pulled herself toward the nearest junction. She sighed in relief as she found a section of the duct that went upward. She looked down, then swallowed. It went down pretty far before stopping; probably to the basement. She would have to climb.

Good thing she left her shoes behind.

It took a while to manuver her body to suspend herself in the duct, but she managed it. She slowly began to inch her way up, grabbing onto the next junction as soon as it showed up so she wouldn't fall.

"He owes me a new dress!" She grunted as she muttered a few curses to the Doctor. Finally, she managed to make it inside the other juction and onto the second floor.

Pepper tumbled out of the air ducts into a deserted room. The place was a mess: sheets and clothing strewn everywhere, half-eaten bags of chips, candy bars, and little cookies that read "Jill and Greg" where all over the place, and a wedding gown was hastily thrown over the fold-out couch. The room was empty of occupants, however. Pepper figured it must have been a couple on their wedding night that fled when the alarms were going off. She could only hope they were clothed when they left. She shook her head, then grabbed one of the half-eaten cookies and took a bite. She shrugged and ate the rest of it, hurrying out of the room.

Once she made sure that the hallway was clear, she hurried to the elevators. Using a trick her older brother taught her, she was able to make it to the top floor—the floor below the penthouse—without stopping. The penthouse was bound to be crawling with soldiers as well, and her plan was to avoid them as much as possible. The doors opened, and she cringed at the sound they made, because it attracted voices from down the hall. Quickly, she located the nearest air vent and wrenched it open. Now, she wished she had a Sonic Screwdriver of her own to use; the thing seemed useless until you really needed it.

Fifteen minutes of crawling through more vents and cursing the Doctor's name later, she finally made it up to the penthouse, and selected a vent near some furniture, so she could get in without being seen. When she managed to get the vent open, she crawled out, peeking up to the scene in the room. What she saw drew a sigh of relief.

The partygoers had been rounded up and were surrounded by four or five guards. They all looked terrified, but no one was hurt. There weren't as many rebel soldiers as the downstairs had, but... These guys looked different. They were wearing bulletproof armor, but they weren't as organized as the downstairs. Their uniforms were mismatched and tattered, and their weapons weren't as regular issue as the soldiers downstairs. They weren't wearing masks, either.

This wasn't adding up. Pepper needed answers, and fast. Easiest way to get them? Do what the Doctor would do. She stepped out from behind the ornate couch and held her hands up. Some of the rebels shouted at her and pointed weapons at her. She kept her hands where they could see them.

"Hold on! Hold on, I'm not armed!" She shouted over them. "Listen, I was just crawling through two stories' worth of air vents, and all I want are some answers."

"Who says we have to answer them?" An older man with a large nose came forward, acting like the one calling the shots.

"Look, my name is Pepper Houston, I'm a traveler just trying to help. Are you the leader?" She asked him.

"The one and only." He said, "You said you're a traveler; then you're not with this elite filth?" He jerked his head at what was he homecoming party.

"No, I'm not with anyone. I'm trying to get some answers."

After a slight pause, the leader lowered his gun a bit. "What is it you need to know?"

"I'm new around here. What is all this fighting about? I thought it was about all these people committing white collar crimes and The Lower Manha—"

"Lower Manhattan?!" The leader growled, raising his gun again, "Are they here?!"

"...you mean you're not with them?"

"Of course not! They're a bunch of conniving hypocrites!" The leader snarled, "They are the second richest out of all of us, right behind Upper Manhattan! No, travel girl, we are the Bronx Army, the poorest of all the armies seeking independence!"

"When you say _all_ the armies... How many armies are there, exactly?"

"Five."

"...we're in trouble."

* * *

After escaping out the back door, the Doctor had led Markus out to the TARDIS to grab a few things before they set off for the modem tower. They'd been through the 'it's bigger on the inside' deal, and after Markus got over the initial shock, all he was doing was waiting. The Doctor had opened up the floor grating and was rummaging around below the TARDIS console.

"What exactly are you looking for, Doctor?" Markus asked.

"Parts! Bits and pieces! Anything we could use. And this!" He held up a large tin can of iodized salt, climbing up out of the compartment. He had tubes and wires looped around himself, a pair of green welding goggles over his eyes, and wearing a pair of mismatched flame-proof gloves.

"What's the salt for?" Markus asked as the Doctor handed the can to him.

"The Brekari! We need to salt them before they can take on new hosts. You get back to the apartments, and help the others stall until I get there."

"But Doctor, how are we going to stop _all_ the slugs? There's too many armies over the entire city..."

"Aw, come on, we—… What."

"...Doctor, I thought you knew... Evangelia's army isn't the only one..."

"... _How many_."

"_Five_ armies, and they're all preparing for an all-out Civil War."

"Not if we can help it. Allons-y!" With that, the Doctor raced out of the TARDIS, Markus trotting along behind him.

"How are we going to cover the city in salt, Doctor! We can't let the Slugs find new hosts!"

"We're not going to cover the city in salt, that'll take too long. We're going with Plan B."

"What's Plan B?!"

"I don't know! I'll tell you when I have it!" He yanked the cell phone out of his pocket and called Pepper.

* * *

By the time her phone rang, she'd gained the trust of leader of the Bronx Army, Neil Opear. Things in the Penthouse had just started to calm down. She picked up.

"Hello?"

"Pepper! There's five armies—!"

"I know, Doctor."

"...what have you been doing?"

"Hanging out with revolutionaries. Climbing through two stories of air ducts. We are _so_ not visiting the seventies again."

"Noted. Listen, I've got to have some way to amplify the wave from my sonic loud enough to cover the entire city, but it's gotta be high enough in pitch so that it doesn't burst every human eardrum from here to the Bronx. But, that's going to take a lot of power. So what I need you to do is go to the TARDIS. Once you get down there, I'll tell you what to do."

"Roger that. Lemme put you on hold." Pepper pressed the hold button and looked at Neil, "Hey, you got one of those repelling lines?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Mind if I borrow it? I gotta save the city from evil army slugs, but my ship is down—"

"Absolutely not."

"What? Come on!"

"I cannot let you go alone. I am coming with you."

After a slight pause, Pepper shrugged. "Alright, if you insist. I ain't complainin'."

Neil barked a few orders to his men, telling them to keep things in line while he was gone. He hooked his line to the side of the building, and, much to Pepper's protest, he insisted on holding her as close to him as physically possible. He assured her it was strictly business, and that he had a wife and kids back home. It went quick—not quick enough, Pepper thought—and as soon as her feet hit the ground, she ducked out of the way of a window and took the Doctor off of hold as she hurried towards his box.

"Alright, I'm in the TARDIS!" She said into the phone.

"Molto bene!" She heard the Doctor say, "Now, plug your phone into the console, there should be a blue chord with a cap on it next to the screen- the chord is psychic, so it should adapt to your phone!"

"Alright!" She put him on speaker and plugged her phone into the console, then, a video feed of the Doctor and Markus popped up on the screen.

"Aha!" The Doctor said, "That's better; 'allo!"

"What do you need me to do?" Pepper glanced up as Neil entered, looking around at the interior of the blue box. After he got over the initial shock, he stumbled next to Pepper, and the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. Pepper gestured between them, "Doctor, this is Neil. Neil, this is the Doctor."

" 'allo. Now, Pepper, what you need to do is move the TARDIS over next to the modem tower."

"_Move_... the TARDIS?!"

"Yep! Neil can help! Up for a driving lesson, you two?"

"There's hardly time!"

"No other options! Besides, all I can teach you from here is how to fly it across the city, no more than that. Now, Pepper, there should be a crank right there..." as quickly as they could decipher the Doctor's ninety-mile-an-hour instructions, Pepper and Neil pushed the right buttons and levers—or what they hoped where the right buttons and levers—and finally, the TARDIS took off. The doors closed as she rose off the ground and took off towards the modem tower.

"Right!" the Doctor said as they were reaching the tower, "Now throw that lever back up and bring her to a stop!" As Pepper did so, the Doctor turned back to Markus, "Markus, go take that extension cord out there!" Markus nodded and drug a long coil of orange cord out to the TARDIS.

Pepper threw the doors open, and Markus hurried inside. Then, she turned back to the Doctor. "Now what? What's the cord for?"

"Pepper, there should be a smorgasbord of plugs under the console, you'll have to lift up the grating to get down there."

"I'll get it!" Neil hurried to the grating door to lift it off.

"Good man, Neil!" The Doctor shouted as Pepper jumped down below the floor, cord in hand. "You see the plugs, Pepper?"

"Yeah! The ones that are a rainbow of colors?"

"Yes! Plug it into the green one!"

"Oh, _that's_ helpful! There's fifteen green plugs!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. There's only seven."

"That still doesn't help! _Which_ green plug?!"

"The one on your far... left! Far left!"

"You sure about that?"

"Yes! It's connected to the TARDIS's power source—well... It's a lot more like a spare battery..."

There was a spark as she plugged it in, making her jump, "I've got it!"

"Molto bene! Now, get out of there, all of you! This is going to make the power surge, and I don't want to take any chances!" Pepper yanked her phone off of the connector, and was surprised to see that the call was still connected.

"Doctor, you still there?"

"I am, but I need you to shut your phone off. I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Just be careful!"

"See you in a bit!" Pepper hung up quickly, then turned her phone off. The three of them looked up at the tower, waiting for something to happen. Then, while Markus and Pepper were distracted, Neil looked at the both of them, his irises suddenly black and ringed with red. Without making a sound, he wrapped his hands around Pepper's throat, almost cutting off a cry of surprise. Markus snapped to attention as Neil started to squeeze, and the blonde grabbed the suddenly possessed by the shoulders.

"No!" Neil took one hand off of Pepper's throat to swing a punch at Markus. Markus caught his fist and twisted his arm, and Neil cried out, letting go of Pepper. She fell to her knees, coughing, and Markus twisted Neil's arm further, to keep him subdued.

Just then, all the lights in the city surged. Sparks flew out of the TARDIS console, and the lights inside flickered for a moment, before shutting off entirely. Bolts of raw electricity arched up the modem tower, before finally collecting on the rod at the top. Then, the bolts formed into waves that quickly and soundlessly shot over the entirety of New New York.

Markus let go of Neil, who was screeching and trying to cover his ears. Finally, the same gelatinous substance as before shot out of his right ear. Neil lay motionless, but breathing, and a little blue slug wiggled out of his ear. When exposed to the air, the slug shriveled into a grayish-blue lump and fell to the concrete.

"Ugh," Neil groaned, rubbing his eyes, "Why is my ear sticky...?"

Pepper smiled. She turned to the door of the building below the modem tower, where the Doctor stepped out, his face smeared with soot. The goggles sat on his head, but there were clear circles around his eyes where they had been before. His hair stood on end—more than usual, that is—and he had _that_ smile on his face. The one that made him look like a genius and a madman at the same time.

"You look like you lost a fight with a flaming baton."

"Oh, well. Saved the city, don't have to look good doing it, eh?"

"And how did you do that, exactly?" Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.

"Amplified the sonic's wave, enough to cover New New York and the surrounding cities. The Brekari should be gone." He scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat sheepish. "Probably blew out the modem, and I might have to fix some things in the TARDIS before we head out..."

"But hey," Pepper said with a smile, "You did it."

"Couldn't have done it without you." He smiled at her, and she grinned back.

"Damn straight!" Pepper chuckled and gave him a small hug.

"...but seriously, you need to take a bath. You smell like a lawn mower."

They both laughed.

* * *

Later on, after saying their goodbyes and fixing up the TARDIS enough for travel (well, the Doctor did most of the fixing, but Pepper helped as much as she could), they were floating out in space. Pepper was sitting in the doorway, her violin in her lap, her legs dangling over as she watched nebulas and solar clouds float by. She smiled; the sight still took her breath away, even for the couple months she'd been traveling with the Doctor. She picked up her instrument, and started to play. It was a song she'd been practicing for a long time. Not her favorite, but it was the one she knew by heart.

"Lovely song," the Doctor said, sitting next to her. Pepper put her bow down, giving him a little half-smile.

"I told you I play violin, didn't I?"

"You did. But you didn't mention that you were good."

She shrugged, "I hate to toot my own horn. Especially when the only things I can do are useless skills..."

"Aww, come on. Your archery skill has come in handy on our adventures, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, but it's not like it'll help after it's all over..." She half-mumbled, setting her violin back inside the TARDIS. The Doctor gave her a slightly surprised look.

"What...?"

She arched an eyebrow at him, "What? You don't think I know that these adventures will end someday? That one day, you'll drop me off back home with an everlasting smile and a head full of memories and never come back?"

The Doctor's expression turned sad. "...I'm a Time Lord. I don't die, I regenerate. But humans... You wither, grow old, and then you die... I can't watch someone I care about die before my eyes, I might try to save them."

"So that's why you never settle down," Pepper nodded, understanding, "But... why do you always go for humans? Why not have alien companions that will live as long as you do?"

"Since my home was destroyed in the Time War, Earth has become my second home... Humans, you're... you're brilliant!"

"Well... not all humans, no... Some of us are just... average. Boring. Unimportant."

"That's not true; In all my nine-hundred-and-twelve years, I have never met someone who wasn't important. Or average. Or boring! And if you're talking about yourself, don't. _You_ are not in the least bit average or boring or unimportant."

"You really think so...?" She looked up at him, honest and sincere as she could possibly be. He smiled and nudged her shoulder, smiling.

"Of course I do. What are friends for, eh?"

After a pause, Pepper broke into uncontrolled laughter. The Doctor looked confused and slightly surprised.

"What?"

"Oh, sweetie," Pepper laughed, rubbing her eyes, "If you knew my friends, you wouldn't be talking like that. I grew up with rednecks and sassy black friends." The Doctor sputtered and started laughing as well.

"It was a nice sentiment, though," She said, patting his arm. He stood up, offering her his hand.

"Well, Pepper Houston, of all of time and space, where do you think we should go next?"

She took his head, grinning and standing up, "You dragged me to the 70's, billions of years in my future. Now, I'm dragging you to the 80's, thirty years in my past."

"Sounds like a plan! Allons-y!"

* * *

(Next chapter previews)

"This is why we don't drive drunk, chil'ren..."

"Not so loud, please..."

"Who the hell is knocking at the door in the middle of-"

"...Marilyn Monroe, apparently."

"Any friend o' the Doctor's is a friend o' mine!"

"Here, take it. I found it on the beach a few weeks ago; it doesn't suit me."

"A necklace?"

"It's 1963. We're a day or so from seeing what really happened to Marilyn Monroe."

* * *

**Sweet Baby Jesus, that took forever QAQ I'm sorry, I got caught up in a lot of other shit and had a near-four-month writer's block.**

**To make life easier on me this summer, guys, I'm gonna look at the original plan I had for this story and cut some of the pre-planned "episodes"/chapters. I'm keeping only what's necessary for the plot. Don't panic, I only cut four excess chapters that really don't matter to the story.**

**I'm sorry I'm so late with this; I'll have chapter five up as soon as possible.**


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